We Are Considering N56,000 Minimum Wage Demand – FG

Last month, the organized labour presented the sum, which triples the current minimum wage, to the FG as the new national minimum wage.

Ngige, while receiving the executive members of the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) in Abuja yesterday, said that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration is a labour friendly government that will ensure that their request is well attended to.

According to him, the government has put every machinery in motion, all targeted at meeting with the NLC’s demand, as he has gotten a letter seeking his advice as the Minister of Labour and Employment.

“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.

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“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