New Minimum Wage To Be Announced In August – TUC President, Bobboi Kaigama

President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Bobboi Kaigama, has disclosed today that the new amount agreed on by the Federal Government and labour to serve as Nigeria’s new minimum wage would be announced next month.

Bobboi, who revealed in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, said that the committee working on the minimum wage had almost concluded negotiations on the matter.

He said “the tripartite meeting is holding today but I do not want to pre-empt the outcome or the level we have reached in our discussions, otherwise there will be unnecessary anxiety. But by the end of August, I am assuring you that workers will know what the agreed new minimum wage will be, ” he said.

On November 22, 2017, President Buhari approved the appointment of a 30-member committee to work out a new minimum wage. He inaugurated the committee on Nov. 27. Buhari was, subsequently, hailed by workers for listening to their cries for a review of the current N18, 000 minimum wage put in place by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

The labour movement, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the TUC had previously demanded N56, 000 as new minimum wage. However, the President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba later submitted a memorandum to the wage committee, demanding N66, 500 “living wage’’.

Wabba said the living wage was necessary to restore confidence for workers, whom he said, had been devastated by years of exploitation and enduring slave wage. The committee negotiating the new wage is made up of representatives of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, the TUC/NLC and the government, represented by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.