NLC Vows To Resist National Assembly Attempt To Remove Minimum Wage From Exclusive List Of FG

Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to resist any attempt by the National Assembly to remove labour matters including minimum wage from the exclusive list of Federal Government to concurrent list ,where each state of the federation  determines wage of workers in respective states in the country 

President of NLC , Comrade Joe Ajaero who issued the strong warning on Friday during National Administrative Council (NAC) of the Central Working Committee meeting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, described the move by the members of the National Assembly as an exercise in fruitility because the issue of minimum wage is treated as national issue globally inline with the International Labour Organization ILO which treats each of the countries as sub-nationals not States in respective countries 

The move according to Ajaero , is an attempt to bastardize minimum wage in the country and remove other labour related matters from the Federal Government for states to establish industrial courts to determine labour issues including wage negotiations against ILO Act 

"The National Assembly should not go into this exercise in fruitility unless members will also allow their respective states to edetermine their own wages, if they attempt to smuggle the issue of labour matters into the concurrent list in the constitution, we will mobilize workers to protest against it even till the election day", he warned 

The NLC President who later spoke with newsmen at the meeting insisted that organized labour would move against any attempt to bastardize minimum wage, saying members of the National Assembly should stand for justice and protect the interests of people who elected themselves as their representatives in Abuja 

"All over the world, there is minimum wage for protection of workers, there is legislation on minimum wage of N70,000 in Nigeria , the law permits states to pay more than that, only few states are paying N70,000 as minimum wage to workers, more states are paying above the minimum wage in the country", he stated