FEC steps down minimum wage memo for further consultations

FEC steps down minimum wage memo for further consultations 

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has stepped down a memo on the new minimum wage from being considered for deliberation.

This. It said, was to allow President Bola Tinubu to engage in more consultation with stakeholders.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this on Tuesday while briefing State House correspondents on the decisions taken at the council meeting.

He said the President had studied the report submitted by the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage and would consult further before a final submission on a new national minimum wage to the National Assembly.

“I want to inform Nigerians here that the Federal Executive Council deliberated on that (the report of the tripartite committee on the new national minimum wage),” he said.

“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, the organised private sector, and of course, including the organised labour.

“That memo was stepped down to enable Mr. President to consult further, especially with the state governors and the organised private sector, before he makes a presentation [of an executive bill] to the National Assembly.”

The Minimum Wage Act of 2019, which made ₦30,000 the minimum wage, expired in April 2024.

The Act should be reviewed every five years to meet with contemporary economic demands of workers.

President Tinubu in January set up a Tripartite Committee to negotiate a new minimum wage for workers.

The committee comprises the organised labour, representatives of federal and state governments as well as the organised private sector.

But the committee members failed to reach an agreement on a new realistic minimum wage for workers, forcing labour to declare an indefinite industrial action on Monday, June 3, 2024. Business activities were paralysed as labour shut down airports, hospitals, the national grid, banks, National Assembly, and state assemblies’ complexes.

Labour “relaxed” its strike on June 4, 2024 following assurances from the President that he was committed to a wage above ₦60,000.

Both the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) leadership subsequently resumed talks with the representatives of the Federal Government, states, and the private sector.

On Friday, June 7, 2024, the two sides (labour and the government) still failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped again its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000 and offered workers ₦62,000.

Both sides submitted their reports to the President who is expected to make a decision and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to pass a new minimum wage bill to be signed into law

by the President.