Review minimum wage now, NLC urges National Assembly

By Ezugwu Obinna

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the 8^th National Assembly to urgently review the Minimum Wage Act of 2010 which it said would expire by June this year.

The General Secretary of Textile and Garment Workers Union and one of the deputy presidents of the NLC Comrade Issa Aremu who made this call in a press release also noted that the huge sums of money allocated to members of the National Assembly was responsible for the inability of some state governments to pay salaries as according to him, the money that ought to be used to pay salaries is spent on the lawmakers.

“The 8^th National Assembly should rightly redirect national resources to priority factors such as education, health and road construction. The Assembly should urgently review the Minimum Wage Act of 2010 which expires in July this year. The Assembly should constitute the Tripartite Statutory Committee based on equality between the government and organized private sector,” the statement read.

Aremu advised the National Assembly to take advantage of the current goodwill of Nigerians and make people friendly decisions or risk mass revolt. He noted that the country’s economy can barely cope with the huge sums of money budgeted for the legislature.

“The National Assembly members should take advantage of the current goodwill of Nigerians and make amend; failure in this regard will provoke mass revolt of the people. The National Assembly budget should be reversed to the 2003 budget of N50 billion which will certainly cut the existing budget of the Assembly by more than 50 percent.”

“After all, since 2003, their number has remained the same while most of their infrastructural needs have been met. The national economy can hardly afford this legislative pay. The 8^th National Assembly must make a difference; it must be accountable to the Nigerian people just as the executive has done.”

He however, thanked the law makers for reducing to N120 billion, the N150 billion annual budget allotted to it which he said was genuinely informed on national interest, but insisted that the reduction was too token considering the country’s economic challenges.

“Organized Labour hereby acknowledge the sensitivity of the 8^th National Assembly under the leadership of Bukola Saraki in reducing to N120 billion the N150 billion annual budget of the assembly which has genuinely provoked national concern.”

“Not far reaching enough however, the point cannot be overstated. The reported reduction by 20 percent is too token; it is certainly not far reaching enough. Should some 469 legislatures gulp as much as N120 billion in a year which is twice the 2015 budget of Ekiti state which stands at N80.774 billion, a state over two million people?” he queried.

The union further congratulated Senator Ben Bruce on his election into the senate but advised him to concentrate his efforts on encouraging the legislature to pass people friendly laws instead of donating his wardrobe allowance to workers, while insisting that even the allowance is illegal.