In opposition to the National Assembly’s intentions to deregulate the country’s minimum wage, the Nigeria Labour Congress vowed on Tuesday to close down the nation for a month.
NLC’s warning coincided with the country’s waiting for a new national minimum wage, which was reached after months of talks involving organized labor, the federal government, and organized private sector.
Speaking on the fringes of the 67th Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association Annual General Meeting in Lagos, NLC President Joe Ajaero stated the union’s stance.
“A Joint Committee of the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Judiciary is meeting as we speak,” Ajaero stated. Section 34 will no longer be subject to a minimum wage since it has been moved from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List, allowing state governors to decide how much to pay you. What you should earn is not up to you to decide.
“They will be their gatekeepers and drivers, and there won’t be any movement for a month, the moment the House of Representatives and the Senate draft legislation that would not help Nigerian workers. We cannot tolerate a scenario in which members of the National Assembly and governors compel laborers to earn slave wages and push the populace into poverty. The Labour Organization will not tolerate it.
“We don’t have a situation where people determine their wages that amounts to some level of illegality,” the president of the NLC continued. There is a clause requiring equal labor for equal compensation in the constitution. Examining the job and conducting a job analysis could reveal that this clerk could be performing same work as the one in sokoto
