Buhari’s Delay in Signing New Minimum Wage Bill into Law Worries NLC

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

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

The NLC General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, expressed the feeling in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Thursday in Abuja.

Ozo-Eson said the delay by the President over the minimum wage for workers in the country had become very worrisome to the labour movement.

He said the organised labour was concerned that it had 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 delays 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 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,” he added.