Mr Garba Datti, a member of the House of Representatives, says he is glad that his call for the decentralization of the minimum wage bill has stirred a national discussion regarding the welfare of Nigerian workers.
The legislator who was on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily said rather than turn to violence and name-calling, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) should look at dialogue as a suitable way of resolving any issue they have regarding the bill.
Datti through a bill sponsored at the House of Representatives initiated a move to remove the powers to negotiate the minimum wage from the Federal Government.
The bill which has passed its second reading in the Green Chamber stirred organised labour against the national lawmakers in the country with the workers union threatening to embark on a nationwide protest if the bill is not discarded.
However, Hon Datti said on Thursday that rather than take industrial actions, the NLC can attend to their issues with the bill by making their case at the National Assembly’s public hearing.
According to him, the NLC and the legislature are not at variance.
The lawmaker argued that what the Federal Government has decided to pay workers is a remuneration that most states cannot pay and as such, there is a need for devolution.
