FG Inaugurates Committee to Negotiate New National Minimum Wage
The Federal Government has inaugurated a 37-member tripartite committee to negotiate a new National Minimum Wage.
The committee is headed by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Bukar Goni Aji, with members from federal and state governments, as well as organized private sector and labor.
Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the committee on Tuesday at the presidential villa, in Abuja.
Shettima charged the committee members to explore collective bargaining to come up with an acceptable recommendation for a new wage policy.
In his opening address, Shettima urged members to speedily arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early as the current N30,000 minimum wage expires at the end of March 2024.
This timely submission is crucial to ensure the emergence of a new minimum wage, Shettima said.
VP Shettima also urged collective bargaining in good faith, emphasizing contract adherence and encouraging consultations outside the committee.
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In May 2017, the House of Representatives moved to amend the National Minimum Wage Act for a compulsory review of workers’ remuneration every five years.
Consequently, the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari empowers the committee to deliberate and come up with an agreed wage which would be eventually ratified by the National Assembly after due legislative scrutiny.
Buhari had also signed the minimum wage act that approved N30,000 for both federal and state workers in the same year.
However, President Bola Tinubu announced the discontinuance of fuel subsidies on May 29, 2023, which triggered a sharp rise in the general cost of living.
Although the administration approved an additional NGN 35,000 wage award for six months (starting September 2023) to alleviate the impact of the subsidy removal, the organized labor maintained that this was only a provisional solution and called for a complete review of the minimum wage in 2024.
Chairing the panel is a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Bukar Aji who, at the inauguration ceremony, affirmed that its members would come up with a fair, practical, implementable, and sustainable, minimum wage.
Tuesday’s inauguration follows months of agitation from organized labor who expressed concerns over the FG’s failure to inaugurate the new national minimum wage committee as promised during negotiations last October.
