Labour, Yari, Ngige differ on N27,000 minimum wage for states

FRESH controversies broke out yesterday over the new Minimum Wage Bill, which has scaled Second Reading in both chambers of the National Assembly.

Finance Minister Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Labour & Employment Minister Chris Ngige and Labour disagreed on the bill.

The bickering was at the public hearing of the House of Representatives ad-Hoc Committee on new Minimum Wage, headed by the Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun.

The Federal government will pay N30, 000 as the minimum wage to its workers, Dr. Ngige said at the hearing.

According to him, the N27,000 minimum wage contained in the National Minimum Wage Act Amendment Bill as sent to the National Assembly, is for the states and the Organised Private Sector (OPS).

The minister said the initial wage figure approved by the Federal Government was N27, 000, which was later reviewed upwards to N30, 000, when they met with the National Council of State (NCS).

Ngige told the committee that the issue of a national minimum wage is a national matter, which the government is committed to.

He said the government set up a tripartite committee, which comprised members of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and other groups that came up with the new wage.

The minister added that the new wage figure is in tandem with international conventions on labour matters and there was a general consensus on the figure.

Labour disagreed at this point, even though Ngige said the Federal Government has agreed to pay its own workers the N30,000 minimum wage.

It insisted that the wage should be all-encompassing for federal and state workers.

NLC President Ayuba Wabba did not disagree, but proposed four amendment to the bill.

Read also: 27,000 minimum wage bill scales second reading

“We have four amendments that we are proposing here. Amendment one is about the figure. In the current bill, Item 1(a) provides for a minimum wage of N27, 000; we want to say and plead that the figure should be made to be N30, 000,” he said.

Even the Employers & Small and Medium Entrepreneur Associations also insisted on the recommendations of the tripartite committee for N30, 000.

But, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman and Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari was embarrassed by the workers, who disrupted his address.

The NGF chair told the gathering that because the revenue allocation formula had not been favourable to the state governors, they resisted the new wage bill initially.

He insisted that for equity and fairness in revenue sharing among the three tiers of government to be enthroned, there is the need to review the revenue allocation formula.

He incurred the wrath of the workers when he said the position of the National Council of State on the new wage bill, which recommended N27, 000, is acceptable to the governors.

The Finance Minister told the lawmakers that the government has not factored the new wage bill into the 2019 Budget.

It was a hall packed full of workers, with a palpable air of expectations and anticipation. Her statement seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of the labour members in the hall.

She, however, said the government had paid salaries, allowances and pensions of federal civil servants up to a hundred per cent.

According to her, the government had paid N2.6 trillion and N3.0 trillion generated same period.

She cautioned of a revenue shortfall and added that the government is working to address it.

Budget Office Director-General Ben Akabueze, who represented the Minister of Budget & National Planning, Udo Udoma, said though the Federal Government was able to pay, but some states are spending more than 70 per cent of revenues available to them on salary, that’s why the president took the step to constitute the tripartite committee to come up with a framework to ensure that the new wage is sustainable.

The House Speaker Yakubu Dogara said the N30, 000 minimum wage being canvassed is not enough.

According to him, it can barely feed a small family unit, adding that it is only when workers are dignified with wages that can provide them minimum comfort that their productivity level would increase.

The ad-hoc committee said it has resolved to ensure that the new Minimum Wage Act 2019 is passed into law before the commencement of the 2019 general elections.

Lasun explained why the House accelerated the process of passing the bill, adding that the review is long overdue.

He said the N27, 000 has already been rejected by labour and the National Assembly is expected to do the needful.