Minimum wage: Some workers will lose jobs if FG pays N30,000 – Ngige makes u-turn

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Thursday said some Nigerian workers will lose jobs if the Federal government pays the new N30,0000 minimum wage.

The controversy about the payment of the new N30,000 minimum wage for the Nigerian workers on Thursday, October 3, took another twist as the federal government and the organised labour are again set to be on war path.

Newsflash247 gathered that the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, declared that the federal government would have to lay off workers to be able to meet a wage bill of N580 billion needed to meet demand on the new wage.

It was gathered that Ngige told labour leaders in Abuja that N580 billion was what would be needed by the government to pay the consequential adjustments as demanded by labour.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the minister’s announcement is the latest in the increasing drama over payment of the new wage.

It would be recalled that a bill for the new minimum wage was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 18.

Ngige made the revelation when the leadership of the United Labour Congress (ULC), paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

He said the federal government was avoiding a situation where it would have to lay off workers, noting that throwing workers into unemployment would add to their burden.

The minister pleaded with labour to accept the consequential adjustment from levels 7 to 17, adding that the government had only three months left to implement the new wage.

He stated that the government would not promise labour what it could not pay, noting that no worker deserved to be owed salary.

The president of UCL, Joe Ajaero, appealed for payment of the new wage, stressing that the private sector should also be compelled to pay the N30,000 minimum wage.

He said there was a need to review obsolete laws that were not in tune with present realities, noting that a situation where some private sector employers paid their employees N10,000 and N15,000 was unacceptable.

Meanwhile, Newsflash247 had previously reported that the organised labour gave the federal government one week for its team to resume discussion on the negotiation of the consequential adjustment for workers in order to conclude the process.

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