The Organised Labour has disapproved of the Federal Executive Council’s decision to step down the memorandum on the report of the Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage.
Head of Public Relations of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Benson Upah said the failure of FEC to consider the memo during Tuesday’s FEC meeting “creates room for injurious speculations.”
CorrectNG recalls that after the council meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told pressmen that the decision was taken to allow for more consultations between President Bola Tinubu, state governors, local government authorities and the private sector.
The minister said; “A lot of people have been asking me questions pertaining to whether the New Minimum Wage would come up for deliberations today at FEC, especially whether government was going to have a position on the new wage.
“Recall that there was a report from the tripartite committee, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, the Organised Private Sector and the government representatives, these three make up the tripartite committee that discussed on the new minimum wage. They have forwarded a report to the President which he has gone through.
“But consistent with the way it should be done, I want to inform Nigerians that FEC deliberated on that because the new national minimum wage is not just the decision of the Federal government.
“That memo was stepped down to enable Mr President consult further so that he can have an informed position on what to do. This decision was taken because it affects the States, LG and the Federal Government.”
But NLC Assistant General Secretary, Chris Onyeka, said Labour would not accept the latest offer of N62,000 and the N100,000 proposal made by some individuals and economists.
