Minimum wage: NLC fixes Wednesday for nationwide protests

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its allies will, on Wednesday, embark on a nationwide protest over moves by the National Assembly to remove the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.

An official invitation sent to labour correspondents by the Congress stated that the mobilisation of members will start from the Unity Fountain Abuja at 7:30 am, and they will move to the National Assembly complex to express their grievances over the move.

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President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, had last week, said the protest would be held in the 36 states Houses of Assembly in reaction to the plan by the House of Representatives to alter the present wage structure, which gave the Federal Government the power to negotiate minimum wage for workers in the country.

Wabba, who reeled out the submissions among members after an emergency National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, vowed that NLC would resist “any attempt to exterminate Nigeria’s working class.”

The Labour leader stated that the workers would not watch “hard-fought rights which are global standards bastardised by opportunistic and narrow – thinking politicians,” adding that the bill is an attempt to undermine Nigeria’s working class.

The House of Representatives had, two weeks ago, debated a bill to remove the powers to negotiate wage matters from the exclusive to the concurrent list, citing the inability of state governors to pay the N30,000 minimum wage for the move.

But the NLC boss said: “The NEC decided that there will be a national protest action commencing from March 10, 2021, in the Federal Capital Territory and especially to the National Assembly.

“The NEC decided that should the need arise, it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike action, especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.”