FG fixes date for payment of new minimum wage

,,,,The President Bola Tinubu-led federal government has restated its commitment to increase the minimum wage for workers from N18,000 to N30,000 beginning from April 2024.

,,,This is even as the federal government has earmarked the sum of N24.66 trillion for the payment of salaries between 2024 – 2026.

The commitment of the Tinubu administration to the payment of N30,000 minimum wage is as a result of several meeting with labour leaders especially since the removal of petrol subsidy.

The government had agreed to pay a wage award of N35,000 to workers to help ease the harsh effect of the subsidy removal. This, the labour leaders insisted, should precede the commencement of a new minimum wage.

The federal government’s team and the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council on October 18, 2019, agreed on the implementation of the N30,00 minimum wage after months of negotiations.

However, labour unions on Thursday confirmed that they had started a negotiation process with the federal government, adding that based on the country’s labour law, the minimum wage should be reviewed every five years.

,,,,,,The NLC national president, Joe Ajaero, recently said, “It is open knowledge that the review of the national minimum wage is a matter of the law which is expected to happen in 2024.”

On his part, the minister of Information and National Orientation, Idris Mohammed, the old minimum wage regime would come to an end in March 2024.

Information Minister noted that the improved take-home pay was meant to replace the temporary palliative measure put in place by the government to ameliorate the hardship caused by the fuel subsidy removal.

“Certainly, there is a new wage regime that will come in on April 1, 2024. That is why these palliatives were targeted so they would cushion economic hardship before then. In our negotiation with Labour, we said that the wage issue was not something one could just fix. A committee that will also involve Labour itself will work on it,” Mohammed said.

“The committee is being constituted and we are talking to Labour,,,,,about it. And by the time this current wage regime expires by the end of March, we will expect that a new wage will begin by April. It is in this wage regime that we will now have a proper salary structure for workers across the length and breadth of Nigeria. We expect that the private sector and state governors will also do the same.”

A top official of the NLC said the organised Labour had initiated talks with the government.

“By April 1, 2024, the current minimum wage will expire. We have all agreed to set up a national wage negotiation committee, and that the committee should comprise all parties,” he told Punch.

,,,,Similarly, the head of information of the NLC, Benson Upah, said: “The new minimum wage is to come into effect next year.”