Finally, FG sets up committee on minimum wage

The Federal Government has finally agreed to constitute a trilateral committee to deliberate on a new minimum wage for workers in the country.

The General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said that the Federal Government had written the NLC to forward a list of its representatives to the committee on minimum wage. The government also informed the union that it had agreed on a chairman for the committee, but did not disclose the identity of the chairman.

“A week ago, we were informed in a letter that the government has now agreed on a chairman and that we should send our list and we did that immediately. What we are waiting for now is the inauguration of that committee so that it can do its work and we hope that is something that will happen without further delay,” Ozo-Eson said.

The committee is expected to include representatives of the government, NLC and employers.

Ozo-Eson noted that what Vice President, Prof Osinbajo recently said about the FG considering a wage review in specific areas of the public sector had nothing to do with the agitation for a new minimum wage in the country. He insisted that the vice president was specifically talking about wages in the public sector.

“From my reading of what the vice president said, I think he was referring to wages in the public sector. He was saying rather than consider a review of all wages in the public sector, the government would likely consider specific parastatals.

“That has nothing to do with the agitation or the demand for a new minimum wage. The minimum wage as it stands is excessively eroded in value. It cannot be regarded as a living wage. The demand for the committee to start work on the minimum wage is completely on course. We expect that process to start as soon as possible,” the NLC scribe said.

Osinbajo had at the 2017 national conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Lagos on Monday, said the Federal Government might consider increasing workers’ remuneration package, especially bonuses of certain government agencies, instead of increasing wages across the board.