Minister of labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, says the Federal
government is carefully studying and considering the N56,000 minimum
wage t that was proposed by the Nigeria Labour Congress last month.
Ngige said this while receiving the executive members of the
Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) in Abuja yesterday
May 9th.
“The other day, labour requested increased wages for workers and they
have only done what they are supposed to do. Therefore, nobody will
quarrel with them. At the appropriate time, we shall all sit down
because what the labour is asking is for the re-negotiation of an
existing Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA). And every CBA-based
agreement is subject to re-negotiation at any given time that any of the
partners requests it. It is wrong for people to think that whenever the
labour makes such a demand, the nation is boiling. The labour in
Nigeria has for the first time met a labour-friendly government under
President Muhammadu Buhari. The government has put machinery in motion
as we speak because I have got a letter as the Minister of Labour and
Employment for my advice. We shall advise the government the way such a
tripartite negotiation will be handled so that everybody will be
satisfied without any industrial unrest. Government in this sense
includes also the state and local governments whom such wages will be
binding on. When government takes a decision, we will now move to
another stage in the process of re-negotiating the CBA. We are in an era
where due process supersedes every other” he said
