Metro

NLC set to protest as NASS considers states on minimum wage fixing

Ayuba Wabba, NLC President and Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker House of Reps.

...May embark on nationwide strike action

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The planned move by the National Assembly to allow the states to decide their minimum wage may eventually led to nationwide protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC).

NLC said March 10, 2021 has been slated for the planned protest in the 36 states Houses of Assembly to register their refusal on the House of Representatives plan to alter the present wage structure that will remove the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.

when this is done, it will take away the power vested on the Federal Government to negotiate minimum wage for workers in the country.

‌Ayuba Wabba NLC National President who stated this on Tuesday after an emergency National Executive Council meeting in Abuja clearly stated that the Congress would resist “any attempt to choke “Nigeria’s working class.’’

The House of Representatives it will be recalled had last week cited the inability of state governors to pay the N30,000 minimum wage as the locus for the debate on a bill to remove the powers to negotiate wage matters from the exclusive to the concurrent list.

In a communique jointly signed by Wabba and Ismail Bello, the acting General Secretary of the NLC, the bill is an attempt to make caricature of the Nigeria’s working class.

The President said: “The NEC decided that there will be a national protest action commencing from March 10, 2021 in the Federal Capital Territory and especially to the National Assembly.

“The NEC decided that should the need arise, it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike action, especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.”