New minimum wage bill delay unfortunate –NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed concern over President Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in signing the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Bill into law.

NLC General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja, yesterday.

Ozo-Eson said the president’s delay in signing the new  minimum wage bill has become worrisome to the Labour movement.

He said Organised Labour is concerned that it has taken long since the transmission of the bill from the National Assembly to the Presidency.

“We had thought that given all processes before arriving at that point, the long delay in setting up a tripartite committee, the long period before the tripartite committee to now finalise and all the debates that had gone on, the president would have signed the bill into law.

“We thought that this was something Mr. President would assent to very quickly because, as we had earlier indicated, we would want this implementation to be before May.

“Our position is to call on Mr. President to, without further delay, assent to the New National Minimum Wage Bill, so that workers can start to enjoy the new minimum wage implementation before May Day.’’

The general secretary, however, noted that apart from the public sector, workers in the private sector were also waiting for the law to be implemented in order to make their own full negotiations and plans.

He said that in implementing the new wage would also allow the economy to be operated in an environment of certainty. He said the delay was unfortunate.

“ So we want to appeal to Mr. President to assent to that bill without further delay.