Minimum Wage: NLC Wants Tripartite Body

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has urged the Federal Government to set up the new minimum wage tripartite committee and not wait for the release of the palliatives report.
In a statement issued in Abuja last Wednesday, the NLC Secretary-General, Comrade Peter Ozo-Eson, said that the organised Labour’s demand of a new minimum wage preceded the increase in the pump price of fuel which led to the constitution of the palliatives committee.
Ozo-Eson said that the palliatives committee should not be used to delay action on the commencement of the process for the determination of the new minimum wage for the workers now is not to write about as the present economic recession is hitting the workers hard with highly inflationary rate.
The NLC scribe said that the organised labour is waiting for the Federal Government to set the necessary machinery in motion on the discussion of the new minimum wage for the Nigerian workers, even as the Federal Government deliberates on ways of taking the nation out of the present economic recession.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has agreed to set up the tripartite committee to discuss the review of the new minimum wage by next month, February.
According to the Special Assistant to the Minister of Labour and Empl oyment on Media, Mr Nwachu-kwu Obidiwe in Abuja last Wednesday, the government would set up the tripartite committee for the review of the new minimum wage immediately after the submission of the palliatives report Obidiwe said that the new minimum wage committee will be set up early February adding that the Federal Government will set up a tripartite committee comprising the federal and state government officials, labour, while the public and private sectors will be represented by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Assembly (NECA).
He said that government seeks the understanding and cooperation of labour and other Nigerians in a peaceful discussion on the review of the new minimum wage.