The Organised Labour has demanded that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), should expedite action on issuance of guidelines for the implementation of the N30, 000 new minimum wage.
Mr. Ayuba Wabba, President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Mr . Bobboi Kaigama, President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), made the call in separate interviews reporters on Wednesday in Abuja.
They spoke after the second term inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Wabba, the issue of the minimum wage is already a law that must be implemented and since it is now a law, whoever fails to implement it, means he or she has violated the law.
“We are still expecting the template by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission for it to be released.
“What is expected is that the commission should issue the guidelines quickly and I am sure the committee is working on it,” he said.
Federal Government had on May 15 inaugurated committee to negoatiate the consequential adjustment in salaries arising from the new minimum wage.
The committee, headed by the Head of Service of the federation, Mrs Wilfred Oyo-Ita, has four weeks to complete its assignment
The NLC president also said that the inauguration of the new administration was essentially a consolidation of democracy in Nigeria.
He noted that it was now 20 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria, and therefore, “I think it is consolidation time.’’
“But most importantly, I also think that it is an avenue for Nigerians to have higher expectations for the fact that democracy has spanned for 20 years.
“Our expectations include: infrastructure development, job creation and most importantly, the issue of emerging challenges of security.
“Clearly, it is an opportunity for us to consolidate on all the gains that have been made from 1999 to date under democratic rule.
“We must be mindful of the new challenges, but more importantly, how we respond to the situation because without addressing security, all other issues will still remain a challenge,” he said.
Also Mr Bobboi Kaigama, TUC President, said that the expectations of Nigerian workers’ as the new administration embarks on its next four years journey are high.
“We know that the Technical Committee is still working on the implementation agreement of the consequential adjustment of the National Minimum Wage.
“ We are expecting that in the next one month, a brand new circular for the increase in salaries and wages for Nigerian workers’ would have been released,’’ he said.
He, however, called on the new administration to ensure that they improve tremendously on their performance in the next four years.
“Going forward, they should improve tremendously on their performance in the next four years, we also strongly believe that the security apparatus and infrastructure will be adequately reviewed and restructured.
“We expect that they will improve on our revenue generations, particularly the non-oil sector and we hope that we will also improve on our agricultural sector.
“We also expect that infrastructure, such as roads, the railways as well as the power sector should be rigorously improved upon,” he said.
