The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has expressed optimism that the new minimum wage will be implemented before the end of July.
This assurance came from the union’s president, Festus Osifo, during a meeting with Onuh Edoka, Special Adviser on Labour Matters to the Kogi State Governor, and his delegation in Abuja.
Osifo emphasised the importance of the National Tripartite Negotiation Committee, comprising the government and organised labour, reaching a consensus to ensure the bill receives prompt attention from President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly. He underscored the urgency of improving workers’ welfare amid the country’s economic challenges and rising inflation.
“What we are working on from both labour centres is that before the end of July, we should have a new minimum wage that must have passed through the processes and that must have been assented to by the President so that the plight of the workers will improve much more so that the economic challenges that we are facing as a country will be improved upon so that an average worker will be able to go to market and buy one or two things to take care of his or her family because of this skyrocketing inflation that we have in our country,” Osifo stated.
He revealed that Labour has proposed a minimum wage of N250,000, while the government and organised private sector have suggested N62,000. Osifo called for all parties to come together and reach a common ground to facilitate the President’s submission of the bill to the National Assembly for prompt passage into law.
Commending the Kogi State government for clarifying the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage to workers, Osifo urged state governments to prepare for the new wage’s implementation once it is signed into law.
“We are not at this moment even dwelling on the N30,000 again. I was listening to a state, I think Nasarawa State, that said they started setting aside some money to meet the new obligations when the new minimum wage is passed. So, I wish to also appeal that in Kogi, let that be the top priority amid this scarcity of income, amid this scarcity of revenue,” he said.
Osifo also appealed to other states to start making plans to implement the new minimum wage. He affirmed Labour’s readiness to ensure state-by-state compliance once the new Minimum Wage Act is passed.
“Let the workers heave a sigh of relief and we have the trust and the belief that, with the high labour representation in the Kogi State government, we believe that the Kogi State government will do the needful,” Osifo added.
Earlier, Onuh Edoka, the Special Adviser on Labour Matters to the Kogi State Governor, highlighted that Governor Ahmed Ododo’s administration has addressed the shortcomings of the previous administration, particularly in workers’ welfare.
