By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The National Council of State (NCS) which is made up of former heads of state and presidents, and governors of the 36 states approved N27,000 as the new national minimum wage and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly transmit an executive bill to that effect to the National Assembly for passage into law yesterday.
Dr. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, told newsmen the outcome of the closed-door meeting, he stressed that President Buhari would transmit the bill to the National Assembly before the end of Wednesday.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government had promised to conclude work on the New National Minimum Wage Bill for onward transmission to the lawmakers on or before 23rd January, 2019.
According to Ngige, while private, public sectors and the state governments, will pay N27,000 as the minimum wage, the Federal Government will pay its workers a minimum of N30,000.
“The bill will now amend the 1981 and 2011 Acts and the highlights are; the figure of N27, 000 monthly has been approved for transmission to the National Assembly, frequency of review of the bill is five years to get in consonance with the pension law of the federation as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. Exemptions to this Act will be establishments that are not employing people up to 25 in number and the various fines prescribed have also been altered.
“States or organisations that are able to pay more than N27,000 could do so, it depends on their financial capacity. For example, the Federal Government has resolved that its own workers will not get anything less than N30, 000. It had decided even before now that it would top up its own minimum wage to bring it in consonance with N30,000,” he said.
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Speaking on the stand of the organised labour not to take anything less than N30, 000 as minimum wage, Ngige said: “The minimum wage is for the lowest paid, the most vulnerable, the person on Grade Level one step one, that is the import. The labour unions understand that and so we don’t envisage any problem on that.”
