The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has disowned the purported minimum wage of N500,000 currently canvassed, stating that the Congress has not taken a position on the amount to be presented to the tripartite committee as the workers’ new minimum wage.
The President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, stated this on Sunday while exchanging views with journalists in Yola, Adamawa State.
Speaking off-camera at the North-East zonal public hearing of the tripartite committee on national wage, Ajaero stated that the NLC is unaware of the N500,000 and N700,000 that are being suggested as the new minimum salary.
According to him, all the figures flying around should be ignored because the NLC as a body was yet to adopt a common front on the new minimum wage.
He said, “The N500,000, N700,000 you are hearing are being collated at the level of the states. In Lagos and other places, I think they are about N700,000 while in other places they are talking about N500,000 which are inputs collated from geopolitical zones.
“However, the NLC secretariat has not provided any information; the states are the source of these minimum data. We will compile them and then create a central presentation using the raw materials that the states are providing.
“The minimum wage ought to be commensurate with those states’ cost of living. Rent in this place is not the same as it is in Abuja or Lagos, as you would undoubtedly agree with me. Consequently, you won’t, on the whole, witness a straitjacket-like Labour presentation in every state.”
The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Adamawa State, Dr Solomon Bulus, who also spoke at the occasion said the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council is in total support of the implementation of the N500,000 new minimum wage because it would drive down the hardship being experienced nationally.
