8 months after, members of minimum wage committee approved; inauguration pending

About eight months after the Federal Government and labour unions agreed on the setting up of a minimum wage review committee to determine a new minimum wage for the country, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, Thursday said that nominations into the committee had been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ngige did not however disclose the membership of the committee. He said that members would include representatives of the Federal and state governments, as well as the private sector.

The labour minister made this known in an interview with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting he had with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He revealed that all stakeholders had sent in their nominations, adding that plans were underway to arrive at a date for the committee’s inauguration.

Read also: Hope rises for Nigerian workers as FG set to review minimum wage

Ngige said, “The old (minimum wage) law expired last year August and we are now in the process of empaneling a new national minimum wage committee.

“I have cleared the appointments with the President today (Thursday) and as soon as the labour people come back from the Labour Governing Board meeting in Geneva, we will take a consensus date with the governors because it is a tripartite committee involving federal, states and the private sector: NECA, MAN, NACCIMA, SMEs.

“The NLC, TUC and their affiliates have done their nominations. What we are now trying to finetune is the date for inauguration.”

When asked whether the N56,000 minimum wage being demanded by workers was feasible, Ngige said the committee would decide that.

It will be recalled that the agreement between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Federal Government to set up a committee to review the national minimum wage was reached some time ago in February of this year.

 

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