The Senate has promised to give the proposed minimum wage bill expeditious passage once it is presented to it by the Presidency.
Senator representing Ekiti South and Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu disclosed this on Friday while speaking with journalists in Abuja.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his national broadcast on the occasion of Democracy Day had dropped the hint that he would soon forward an Executive Bill that would ultimately, transform into the New Minimum Wage Act to the National Assembly, based on agreement reached with the Organised Labour.
Both the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have however countered President Tinubu as they insisted that there was no agreement on N62,000 as the new Minimum Wage.
Senator Adaramodu who revealed that the Executive Bill would be presented to the National Assembly after the Sallah festive period assured Nigerians that it would be given the necessary attention to assuage the feelings of aggrieved workers.
He said: “Yes, if immediately after Sallah, the Bill is brought by Mr. President to the National Assembly, it’s going to be dealt with, with speed of lightning. Yes, we are going to pass it because it is for the benefit of Nigerian workers.
“Even if it is possible within 30 minutes, we will do that. So it depends on the content of the Bill because the bill will go through the crucibles of the passage of Bills by the Parliament.
“So we are not going to sit down and just say that the Bill has been passed. So we go through the crucibles. So within the time, if there are no oppositions from outside, if there are no oppositions from within, there can never be opposition from within because it’s going to be a kind of agreement between Labour, government and organised private sector. So once that one is there and then it comes to us, so definitely we will go through the processes without delay and make sure that Nigerian workers get their deal.”
Asked if the new minimum wage would be binding on state governors who have expressed strong reservations about their financial capacity, to pay N62,000 as promised by the Federal Government, the Senate spokesperson who noted that negotiations were still ongoing expressed the hope that both the executive at states and federal would ultimately, reach an understanding that would meet the expectations of the Nigerian workers.
“Since they are all meeting, we know that at the end of the day, all of them will agree on the figure because when it’s an executive bill, an executive bill means state executive, federal executive and even local government executive. So definitely there has going to be an agreement. So once there’s an agreement, the bill will come and I don’t think any of the components of the negotiating bodies will oppose the agreed figure at the end of the day. So we don’t have any fear about that. You know when you are negotiating, you negotiate from various reasons, parameters and parallels. So at the end of the day, all the lines will converge and meet at a concentric point. So that’s where we now come in. So we come in at the end of the tunnel and then we’ll pick it from there and make it into law so that we can have a better deal for Nigerian workers.”
Asked to respond to previous unpalatable experiences by workers at state levels at the mercy of governors who observed the Minimum Wage Act in breach, Adaramodu said the 10th Senate would make provisions for sanctions for states that refuse to comply.
“We are going to do a watertight bill that we are proposing that the president will sign it to ensure that it is strictly adhered to as a law. Once it becomes law, we are going to make it watertight. And don’t let us just speculate what are going to be the ingredients that the federal government will be putting into the bill that will be brought by the Executive to be submitted to the National Assembly.
“But when it comes, whatever is there and whatever is not there, we are going to ensure that it’s going to be watertight, that it’s going to be obeyed by all. And from that, again, when we are talking of minimum wage, is it about federal government alone? Because it seems that it is a fight between the federal government and labour. That’s the way everybody is looking at it. So we keep mentioning the federal government, we keep mentioning
President Tinubu and Labour.
“So we don’t even talk about the organised private sector. We don’t even talk about the sub-nationals. And then it behooves the NLC, which recognises the workers in the organized private sector and the sub-nationals to look at the NLC that recognizes them as their members, to even ensure that they advocate for them. The issue of some states still paying N18,000, though I don’t know because I don’t suspect that one to be happening. So if there are some states paying that, what have the labour centers in those states done in order to ensure compliance with that N30,000 minimum wage?
“So we need to ask them question too. But like I said, the National Assembly is going to do this law seriously watertight that either the state or sub-national or organized private sector that is not complying, there is going to be sanction for it. So that’s the way it’s going to be done this time around. But the labour centers too need to protect the welfare of their members, not only with the Federal Government.”
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