Nigeria: Minimum Wage

19 January 2009
editorial

A bill seeking to raise the minimum wage from N7500 to N30000 is before the House of Representatives waiting for its second reading. Sponsored by one Honorable Doris Uboh (Ika North East/ Ika South, Delta State) the bill proposes an amendment to the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 with a view to upwardly review the minimum wage.

Already the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is negotiating with the federal government on its demand for N52000 minimum wage which it submitted through a letter to the secretary to government, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed late last year. But irked by what it thinks is an unrealistic demand, government has described the N52000 as outrageous, that it does not take cognizance of the realities on the ground. Citing the fact that it has had to draw down its expenditures by imposing austerity measures on government activities in the face of what it called global financial meltdown and the reduction of revenue due to collapse of oil price, government sees labour's demand as unreasonable. To make NLC back down on its demands it is threatening to retrench workers.

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