The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, Thursday told the organised labour to consider the bad economic situation of the country in its agitation for the implementation of the relativity/consequential adjustment of the N30,000 new minimum wage.
Speaking in Abuja while receiving a delegation of the Nigeria Labour Congress led by its President, Ayuba Wabba, he described the issue of the new minimum wage as very thorny.
“In the course of that, tempers flared and there were misgivings and all of that, but finally, we got to a standpoint that gave us 66.7 per cent rise, from 18,000 to 30,000.
“What we’re saying is that we should try for all parties to agree, that the economy is in doldrums, that the economy has some troubles, and therefore, we’ve to cut our coat according to our cloth, that’s the most important thing.
“It’s unfortunate that negotiation was deadlocked from levels 7 till 17, and issues became on what percentage or slides that they should use on the sliding scale.
“The bad thing is that we are going to discuss and negotiate it, it’s a collective bargaining arrangement because if we talk strictly about the minimum wage, it’s already being implemented because the minimum wage is for the person on the lower rung of the ladder.
“The consequential adjustment that’s following it must also be reflected, they must be done because you’ve impinged on other people’s scale..,” he said.