Aremu urged committee to fast-track minimum wage implementation 

A NEC member of the NLC and labour representative on the National Income and Wages Commission, Comrade Issa Aremu, has called on the newly inaugurated Bismarck Rewane-led Technical Advisory Committee on the implementation of a National Minimum Wage to only facilitate the full implementation of the negotiated N30,000 and not undermined it.

Aremu said this on Thursday in Ilorin where he commended the review of all workers salary who are earning above the minimum wage.

He also observed that it was reassuring “that President Muhammad Buhari reaffirmed commitment to the new minimum wage with the discussion with organized labour to send the Executive bill to that effect before January 23rd.”

Aremu, who is also the Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Kwara state, noted that while Bismarck-led Technical Committee was made up of eminent experts, it was desirable  that the representatives of organized labour were parties  to the implementation of what he called “critical labour market issues like minimum wage and slavery review for other categories of workers earning above the minimum.

“Indeed, ideally the best statutory committee to drive the mandate of the Bismarck Committee would have been National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages  Commission (NSIWC),” he said.

According to him, the  25 year-old Commission provides technical input to the work of Tripartite Committees on the determination and fixing of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), made up of government, the Organised Labour and Organised Employers.

The Commission, he recalled, had performed this singular role during the work of the Tripartite Committee of year 2000 that fixed the National Minimum Wage at N5,500 and that of the year 2011 that fixed the National Minimum Wage of N18,000 per month.

“The Executive Chairman of the Commission, Chief  Richard Ebule  served as a Member/Secretary to the Tripartite Committee inaugurated by Mr. President on 27th November 2017 which midwives  the New National Minimum Wage of N30,000.

“The Commission, as in previous occasions, also provided the Secretariat to the Committee. Commission had provided technical inputs and compensation architecture that led to the creation of new pay structures for the Public Service,” he said.