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Minister raises hope for new minimum wage

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Hope for workers as FG sets up panel on N56,000 minimum wage demands

Hope that Nigerian workers may, in the very near future, have their salaries and wages improved were raised Wednesday when the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, informed that the Technical Committee on National Minimum Wage will submit its report next week.

The committee is saddled with the responsibility of reviewing workers’ salaries to reflect current socioeconomic realities.

Speaking to State House Correspondents, Ngige said, “On the minimum wage issue, we have a technical committee that is working and members of the two congresses are on the committee. We are almost finishing our work and we are handing over next week.

“Everyone knows that prices have gone up and in some states, workers are not getting salaries. They are unable to pay the minimum wage. These are the things we have taken into account in our discussion.”

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He also spoke on the spate of brewing industrial unrests saying, “We also have warnings from doctors’ union and ASUU, as well as NASU. We are discussing with them but we want to appeal to all of them that there is nothing like warning strike.’’

He, however, called for dialogue and negotiation as a way to resolving labour issues.

“There is nothing you cannot get by negotiation and you cannot get certain things by threats.

“Warning strikes as far as government is concerned are threats. I have made it clear to them,” he said.

Rising inflation which hit a decade high in 2016, reaching over 18%, has left most workers impoverished with agitation for wage increase a common feature among the country’s federating units.

 

 

 

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0 Comments

  1. Roland Uchendu Pele

    February 2, 2017 at 8:35 am

    Ngige has just spoken my mind over the unending strike actions that the various labour organisations embark on every now and then. I really think they get to waste their time while causing more troubles for the government. Patience is key when negotiating a thing in Nigeria. Labour must have been used to this.

    • Balarabe musa

      February 2, 2017 at 1:45 pm

      Patience is the key . Down tooling is not an option. I think there should be law to ban any form of strike action by NLC or any professional bodies in Nigeria.

  2. Johnson Amadi

    February 2, 2017 at 10:16 am

    This is yet another dream that will not come true under Buhari’s government. If minimum wage is increased, there will be pressure on both the federal and state government, what is the probability that increment of minimum wage will increase productivity? I don’t see this as a wise development. The minimum wage is okay as it is if the FG can take us out of recession.

    • Margret Dickson

      February 2, 2017 at 10:20 am

      You have a point which is “the minimum wage is okay as it is if the FG can take us out of recession,” the problem Nigeria is facing is bad governance and poor economy, if we our economy can improve we won’t have a situation where too much money will be chasing very few goods.

  3. JOHNSON PETER

    February 2, 2017 at 10:26 am

    Even if workers are paid millions of naira monthly as minimum wage, that will only worsen situation as inflation will be of high again as sellers would seized that opportunity to inflate prices of goods and services using increased salary as measures. What need to be done is to tackle the issue of inflation by setting a stern price regulatory board, then adjust our monetary policies and finally solve the issue of dollarising the economy. If the economy is stable and vibrant, then good price control mechanism is put in place, and our naira is strengthen, even with a worker earning #5000 per month , he can still live comfortably whereas a worker can be earning 500,000 monthly and yet he is not satisfied and in poverty by the time inflation eats away the whole earnings.

    • yanju omotodun

      February 2, 2017 at 10:38 am

      Well analysed effective sugestions but our government would never take this advice. Sincerely , I see no sense in increasing workers’ wages or salaries as well but to make the curb inflation of goods and services . If prices of goods and services are controlled in such a way that no seller or business tycons have power over price, except government regulated prices, salaries earned would be valued as it can get what to buy at fixed prices without no uncertainty .

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