The Federal Government has said the meeting with the Organised Labour to avert a national industrial action as threatened by labour over non transmission of the New National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly will reconvene by 1p.m on Wednesday.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, disclosed this while speaking with journalists after a closed door meeting with organised labour in the early hours of Tuesday in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Monday insisted it would go ahead with a nationwide protest scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 8 (today).
NLC’s position was contained in a statement issued on Monday by its General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson.
The organised labour had announced the protest following President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement while presenting the 2019 Appropriation bill to the National Assembly that a “high powered technical committee” would be set up to device ways to ensure that minimum wage implementation did not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.
Speaking after the closed door meeting, Ngige said they had made progress and by Wednesday would know the definite date when the bill would be transmitted to the National Assembly.
He explained that it had been difficult to arrive at a date because there were processes to follow.
He said: “We have to go to the Federal Executive Council with a council memo on the bill, after that, we will go to the National Economic Council and the Council of State.
“But for the Council of State, the President has to look at his own time table and we will inform past Heads of State and Justice of the Federation. This can take two weeks.
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“However, we are trying to see if we can accommodate all these meetings by next week because we cannot do Council of State meeting again this week.
“Immediately after that meeting (Council of State), we will transmit the bill.”
Speaking also, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, agreed that their discussion had been useful.
He said that labour leaders had consulted and agreed to meet with the government on Wednesday by 1p.m to ensure that the processes for the transmission of the bill would be completed without further delay, but restated that the planned nationwide protest would still hold as scheduled.
“The protest is about implementation, it has no link with the transmission. We are trying to see how the bill will be transmitted to the National Assembly.
“The protest is about how to get all parties committed to the issue of minimum wage, it is different from how we get this bill transmitted with timeline to the national assembly,” he explained.
