Although the Tripartite Committee On National Minimum Wage is yet to conclude its negotiations, the Federal Government, Wednesday, took a pre-emptive step to douse possible workers restiveness, announcing that the new minimum wage will take effect from May 1, 2024.
A report by Channels Television, quoted the Minister of State Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, as have made the disclosure on Wednesday as she addressed Nigerian workers at the May Day rally in Abuja.
The Minister was, however, silent on what the new minimum wage would be and whether the tripartite Committee working on the matter had pushed a particular figure for government’s consideration.
Though Onyejeocha regretted that the new national minimum wage was not ready before May Day, she assured that a wide consultation was ongoing to ensuring that the document was made ready as soon as possible.
Channels recalled that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, had, at various times, urged the Bola Tinubu Administration to hasten the upward review of wages. Recently, the Organised Labour had demanded N615,000 as the new minimum wage for workers tin order to absorb the shock of the soaring cost of living in the country occasioned by the administration’s economic policies.
The labour unions maintained that the current minimum wage of N30,000 cannot cater for the well-being of an average Nigerian worker. Even so, not all states were paying the current meagre minimum wage which expired in April, five years after the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
By law, minimum wage should be reviewed every five years to accommodate prevailing economic realities.
During the May Day rally, President Bola Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, lauded the enormous contributions of Nigerian workers to the country’s economic growth and all-round development.
In the message to workers, the President assured that the Federal Government would receive the recommendations of the committee on the new national minimum wage with open mind.
He assured workers that the reform agenda of the current administration was geared towards the progress of Nigeria.
