June 25, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has stepped down the memorandum on the report of the Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage for further consultation.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who disclosed this to State House Correspondents after the FEC meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, said this was done to allow the President to consult wider.
According to the minister, the council took its decision realising that the issue of the national minimum wage is not just for the consideration of the federal government, but involves other stakeholders like the state and federal governments, as well as the organised private sector.
He said the President needs to interact with other wage-paying entities to factor their contributions and circumstances into the executive bill on the matter that will be passed on to the National Assembly for passage into law.
“I want to inform Nigerians here that the Federal Executive Council deliberated on that and the decision is that because the new national minimum wage is not just that of the federal government, it is an issue that involves the federal government, the state governments, local governments, and the organised private sector and of course, including the organised Labour”, he said.
The decision of the President to consult the relevant stakeholders is coming on the heels of the statement by the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, where he said that the organised labour had expected the President to reach out to the members of the Tripartite Committee to harmonise the figure.
Ajaero had hinged his position on the fact that there was a stalemate at the end of the Tripartite Committee meeting.
THEWILL had reported that at the end of the Tripartite Committee meeting on the new national minimum wage, the federal government team and the organised private sector offered N62,000 but the organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), demanded N250,000 living wage.
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