The Federal Government has mandated all state governors and private sector who are yet to implement the thirty thousand naira national minimum wage to do so immediately.
The minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige gave the directive in Abuja at the 2021 Workers’ day celebration.
Ngige who represented President Muhammadu Buhari said the new national minimum wage was passed into law and so therefore was not a question to pick and choose.
He added that the federal government will not support the removal of National minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.
On the new minimum pension, he assured pensioners that the new increment commences today May 1st, and will reflect in this May salary, while the arrears covers from April 2019.
On minimum wage he said
“Private sector, state government and federal government are bound by the laws because we have workers as prescribing that law. It is not the question to pick and choose, we moved the national minimum wage from 18,000 per month to 30,000 per month. It is an irreducible plause, therefore we expect them and people in the private sector to comply”.
On the removal of national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list he said
“I wish to reassure Nigerian workers that minimum wage is minimum amount of remuneration that an employer is required to pay wage earners doe the work performed during a given period, which cannot be reduced by collective agreement or an individual contract. That is one of the major reasons why National Minimum Wage is listed as item number 34 in the exclusive list, second schedule of the Nigerian constitution of 1999 is backed by relevant ILO conventions”
“All pensioners get their pay from May 1st and get their arrears starting from April 2019” he added.
Speaking Earlier, the President Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba called on the federal government to pay all withheld salaries of workers in Federal Health Institutions.
Ayuba further lamented that COVID 19 pandemic has further exposed the inherent deficiencies in Nigeria’s social protection system.
He therefore called for a sound social protection system that provides a cushioning mechanism in the midst of life circle vulnerabilities.
He said
“On this year’s World Health Day, our doctors were on strike because of government’s failure to address the issues bordering on workers welfare and infrastructural deficits. Government has repeatedly breached Collective Agreements and disobeyed court judgments. For instance, it has breached the agreement with the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and also refused to implement the judgements of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) delivered in favour of JOHESU members. We wonder why government who should show example is the one flagrantly breaching court judgments.
We call on the federal government to pay all withheld salaries of workers in Federal Health Institutions such as Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Owerri, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos. They should also implement the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS); enforce court judgments delivered by the NICN on November 28, 2019; implement all collective agreements reached with health workers in 2017 and overhaul health infrastructure nationwide
We implore government to implement the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) for health workers in all the states and local governments across the country, especially Imo, Enugu, Abia and Niger States”.
“we call for a rejig of the world economic system. The current global economic model is flawed. It has entrenched inequality and insecurity for working people and their families both in Nigeria and other parts of the world. In order to promote inclusion and reduce inequality, we call for adequately funded universal public health, education and care. We also demand that Just Transitions for climate and technology should be central in economic planning and policy framing” he added.
