From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, yesterday said the demand by labour for the review of minimum wage is a legitimate request which the Federal Government is carefully studying and appropriately responding to.
The minister, who gave the assurance while receiving the executive members of the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) in Abuja, said: “The other day, the labour requested for increased wages for workers and they have only done what they are supposed to do.”
“Therefore, nobody will quarrel with them. At the appropriate time, we shall all sit down because what the labour is asking for is re-negotiation of an existing Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA). Every CBA is based on an agreement that it is subject to re-negotiation at any given time that any of the partners requests for it,” he added.
“It is wrong for people to think that whenever the labour makes such a demand the nation is boiling. The labour in Nigeria has, for the first time, met a labour friendly government under President Mohammadu Buhari. The government has put machinery in motion as we speak, because I have got a letter as Minister of Labour and Employment for my advice. We shall advise the government the way such a tripartite negotiation will be handled so that everybody will be satisfied without any industrial unrest.
“Government, in this sense, includes also the state and local governments whom such wages will be binding on. When government takes a decision, we will now move to another stage in the process of re-negotiation of the CBA,” he said.
The former governor of Anambra State further noted that the Change mantra of the Buhari administration is geared towards changing the way things are done for the better.
“We are in an era where due process supersedes every other thing. People can only perform their roles and give way for other people to also perform theirs. Labour is part of the tripartite arrangement of the International Labour Organisation’s structure which Nigeria is signatory to,” he said.
Earlier in his address, President of OTUWA, Comrade Mademba Sock, said the organization, in 2015, took far reaching decisions to revive and re-position the organisation which though was established over three decades ago but still faced a lot of challenges.
He further noted that the decision to re-locate its headquarters from Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire to Abuja was to enhance its operations since the headquarters of ECOWAS is in Abuja, adding that the body has a five-year strategic plan meant to galvanise its visions, function effectively and boost its merits for the benefits of the labour unions in the ECOWAS sub-region.