The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, says obliging the demand of labour unions on minimum wage will eventually lead to loss of jobs for many workers in Nigeria, according to TheCable. He disclose this at the casual visit paid to him by the leadership of the United Labour Congress in Abuja, on Thursday.
The Herald reported that the Organized Labour team in Nigeria had threatened to embark on an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of the N30,000 new National Minimum Wage structure.
President Buhari had signed the new minimum wage structure into law in April 2019, during his first tenure, but over six months after signing, the bill is yet to be implemented.
Addressing the issue, the minister said a wage bill of N580 billion is needed to meet labour’s demand on the new wage.
TheCable reported that the federal government is trying to avoid a situation where it will have to lay off some of its workers to meet the demand, according to the Minister
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Ngige said the implementation of the new wage had since commenced for workers on grade level 1 to 6.
He appealed to the labour leaders to accept the consequential adjustment from levels 7 to 17.
He said the government had only three months left to implement the new wage.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike from October 16 if deliberations on minimum wage adjustments do not resume.