Labour insists on minimum wage

Labour will go ahead to submit a proposal  for the review of the national minimum wage despite the opposition to same by  state governors in the country, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria(TUC) has said. The congress at its National Executive Council(NEC) meeting in Lagos at the weekend said it would employ every legal means […]

Labour will go ahead to submit a proposal  for the review of the national minimum wage despite the opposition to same by  state governors in the country, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria(TUC) has said.
The congress at its National Executive Council(NEC) meeting in Lagos at the weekend said it would employ every legal means to get the governors comply with the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage for workers in their employ.
A communiqué signed by the congress’s President,Comrade Bala Kaigama and  Secretary-General,Barrister Muhammed Lawal, also condemned the recent statement of the governors that the minimum wage was foisted on them by labour.
It said: ‘’The question of imposition does not arise since the negotiations leading to the enactment of minimum wage passed through all the tenets of the International Labour Organisation’s tripartism.  This is so because the employers – both private (NECA) and public (government) – as well as the organised labour and government (as regulator) were all involved’’
It also picked holes in government’s frequent policy somersaults,  which  it maintained is responsible for our under development.
“A case in point is the planned re-institution of toll gates presumably to help raise funds for government.  It is still recallable that toll gates were in existence up to Obasanjo’s regime when the infamous decision to abolish them was taken. It is even more worrisome to note that the cost of demolition of the toll gates was more than the cost of building them in the first place,” it added.
The congress also frowned at the issue of illegal recruitment in the public service, and urges the federal government to ensure that all appointments are strictly guided by public service rules, scheme of service, establishment circulars, and Federal Civil Service Commission’s guidelines on appointment, promotion and discipline in the public service.