New Telegraph

Labour kick against bill seeking minimum wage transfer to concurrent list

…to embark on nationwide protest March 10

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), may embark on a nationwide strike if the National Assembly passes into law, a Bill seeking for movement of the minimum wage from the Executive Legislative list, to Concurrent Legislative list. Speaking at the end of an emergency NEC meeting held virtually yesterday, President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, noted that any attempt to move the minimum wage was an attempt to plunge the country into chaos and make Nigeria a laughing stock in the international community, as minimum wage was a global standard.

Wabba, who said the political class were the major problems of Nigeria’s unity and progress, described as unfortunate, the move by the political class seeking to further worsen the precarious situation of Nigerians by declaring a war against the working class and prosecuting same by attacking the core rights of workers. According to him, the major reason behind the call to move the minimum wage to the Concurrent Legislative list was to enable states negotiate and fix their minimum wage, which may not being into cognizance, protection of employees in government and organised private sector, and particularly, the unorganised, the unskilled and the vulnerable in the highly un-governed space known as the informal sector. He maintained that the National Minimum Wage was a global standard adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) through Convention 26 which was ratified by Nigeria on June 16, 1961, and that Nigeria as a Sovereign state, gave effect to the National Minimum Wage by putting it in the Exclusive Legislative List.

He said: “The attention of the entire working class in Nigeria has been drawn to a bill which was listed in the House of Representatives as HB 950. This bill which was sponsored by Honourable Garba Datti Mohammed of Sabon Gari Federal Constituency, Kaduna State had passed the 1st and 2nd reading in February 2021. “The NEC considered that the bill is a classic case of the Hand of Esau and the Voice of Jacob as it has all the imprimatur of anti-workers forces in the political establishment. The NEC considered Hon. Garba Datti as only a hireling in the plot by his sponsors to disorient, injure, and exterminate Nigeria’s working class.

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