Minimum Wage: Organised Labour Cautions NASS Against Removal From Exclusive List
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has cautioned the National
Assembly against any attempt to remove labour matters, especially the minimum
wage from the exclusive list of Federal Government to concurrent list.
According to the organized labour, such attempt where each
state in the country will determines the salaries of the workers on its payroll
will be resisted.
NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who issued the warning while
speaking at the National Administrative Council (NAC) of the Central Working
Committee meeting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said such an attempt
will resulted into an exercise in futility.
Ajaero explained that the issue of minimum wage is treated
as national issue globally in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO)
law.
The NLC President added that the ILO law viewed each of the
countries as sub-nationals and not States in respective countries
According to him , the runmoured plan will bastardize the minimum
wage in the country and remove other labour related matters from the Federal Government
for states to establish industrial courts to determine labour issues including
wage negotiations against ILO Act
"The National Assembly should not go into this exercise
in fruitility unless members will also allow their respective states to edetermine
their own wages, if they attempt to smuggle the issue of labour matters into
the concurrent list in the constitution, we will mobilize workers to protest
against it even till the election day", he warned
“Organized labour would move against any attempt to
bastardize minimum wage, because the members of the National Assembly are
expected to stand for justice and protect the interests of people who elected
themselves as their representatives in Abuja
"All over the world, there is minimum wage for protection of workers, there is legislation on minimum wage of N70,000 in Nigeria , the law permits states to pay more than that, only few states are paying N70,000 as minimum wage to workers, more states are paying above the minimum wage in the country", Ajaero concluded
