May Day: Minimum wage cannot be manipulated – FG to workers

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, made this known at the 2021 May Day celebration in Abuja.

Ngige said the new minimum wage was a national law, which would not be manipulated by anyone.

“That law is a national law, it is not that which you can choose for anybody that falls within the ambit of that law. It is not a question of pick and choose.

”We moved the national minimum wage from 18,000 per month to 30,000; it is an irreducible clause and we need a social protection mechanism.

“We, therefore, expect the states and people in the private sector to comply. Amendment of trying to expand that law or trying to bring the law into the concurrent list of the institution will not work,” he said.

Speaking also, Mr Ayuba Wabba, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), warned that any attempt to remove the national minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List was a mischievous effort to foster crisis, chaos and anarchy in the country.

”First is the criminal refusal by some state governors to pay the new national minimum wage and consequential increase in salaries, thus violating workers’ rights.

“We have already directed all our state councils to down tool if any governor remains adamant about paying the new national minimum wage,” Ayuba said.