News coming out of the Trade Union Congress building suggests that the union and the Federal Government have agreed on the new amount to be implemented as the new Minimum Wage.
The President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Mr Bobboi Kaigama, announced on Wednesday that a new amount agreed by the Federal Government and labour to serve as Nigeria’s new minimum wage would be announced next month.
Mr. Bobboi made this known during an interview with the labour correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. He told NAN that the committee working on the minimum wage had almost concluded negotiations on the matter with the federal Government.
Earlier in the year, the Federal Government set a September target unveil a new minimum wage package for workers after several years of agitation by labour following the harsh economic realities; the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, was recently reported as “double-speaking” on the issue when he announced that the September date would no longer be feasible.
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Nigerian Civil Servants, who constitute the extinct middle class, are eagerly awaiting a wage increase after years of enduring a wage structure described by analysts as one of the lowest in the world even though public office holders in the country enjoy some of the biggest wage package in the world.
The NUC Chairman further revealed that a tripartite committee meeting was scheduled to hold on Wednesday in Abuja; he however refused to elaborate more on issues being discussed at the meeting.
“The tripartite meeting is holding today but I do not want to pre-empt the outcome or the level we have reached in our discussions, otherwise there will be unnecessary anxiety. But by the end of August, I am assuring you that workers will know what the agreed new minimum wage will be.”
President Muhammadu Buhari had on November 22, 2017, approved the appointment of a 30-member committee to work out a new minimum wage; he inaugurated the committee on November 27