We’ll soon reconvene negotiations on minimum wage – FG

The federal government Thursday said the disagreement over the consequential adjustment of the N30, 000 national minimum wage that was stalled would soon be resolved.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who made this known when he played host to the leadership of the Nigeria  Labour Congress (NLC) said the meeting would soon be reconvened to trash out the issues so that other cadres could benefit from the new wage.

He said, already, workers from grade level 01 – 06 have started enjoying the new minimum wage, stating that it was unfortunate that negotiations were deadlocked for levels 07 -17 cadre.

The minister, who said government is worried that some workers are yet to enjoy the new wage, said the delayed was due to expiration of the first term of the administration.

He said, “our council died on 29th may, with expiration of term also unfortunately, the head of service, the chair of that committee had to go on compulsory leave and it is not easy when some other person is going to act and move in”.

Dr Ngige further said government was doing everything possible to reconstitute the council to continue the negotiation so as not to pile up debt for both federal and state governments.

“It is important that we advise them that if they keep on piling debts, the federal government might go into problem of payments, the state governments that have always not been regular with payments will have problem.

“The best thing to do is for them to send down this to the state and show the example by paying. the state government as at today are duty bound, and they now have the template to pay level 1-6, and they are plenty, when we reconstitute our committee, I do not see us not agreeing, we can disagree, but we will eventually agree, but we will come back, we know ourselves.”

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