Reps, Labour Leaders Meet Over Controversial Minimum Wage Bill

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Tuesday, March 16th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The leadership of the House of Representatives and the organised labour are now in a meeting over a bill in the House of Representatives seeking an amendment to the 1999 Constitution by removing matters relating to wages from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

If passed and signed into law, it will decentralise the current national minimum wage solely determined by the Federal Government and allow state and local governments to determine the wage to pay their workers.

At the meeting are the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila; Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; Deputy Majority Leader, Peter Akpatason; sponsor of the bill, Garba Datti Muhammad; and representatives of relevant committees of the House.

Leading the labour side is the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba.

Gbajabiamila walked into the venue at 2:59 pm and the meeting began immediately after.

Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trace Union Congress had led a protest march to the National Assembly on Wednesday, while their state chapters also held rallies across the country over the proposed decentralisation of the national minimum wage.

Ado-Doguwa, while addressing the workers, who stormed the National Assembly Complex after a protest rally around the Abuja metropolis, had said the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, who he said was in Lagos, had fixed a meeting between the lawmakers and the labour unions for Tuesday.

To address the protesters, Ado-Doguwa had represented the Speaker; and Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, represented President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan. They were accompanied by some principal officers and members of both chambers.

Ado-Doguwa said, “He (Gbajabiamila) has also told me to tell you, through the presidents of the organised labour, that he will organised a joint meeting of the National Assembly leadership with the leadership of the organised labour on Tuesday next week so that this matter can be treated in a manner that Nigerians want.”(Culled From Punch)