Tina Amanda
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected a new bill seeking to transfer the powers to legislate on minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the concurrent list.
The bill which is been sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives representing Sabon Gari Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, GARBA DATTI MOHAMMED has reportedly reached its second reading before the House of Representatives.
In a swift action to stop the National Assembly from taking further actions on the bill, the organized labour said it is an anti-labour law and a demonstration of the aspirations of the unnamed governors to further dehumanize Nigerian workers under their employ.
NLC stated this during its Nationwide protest held this morning.
The Rivers State NLC Chairman, Mrs Beatrice Itubo, who led the protest to Rivers State House of Assembly, Port Harcourt, described the bill as obnoxious and Anti-Democratic.
Addressing the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly at the state Assembly complex, Comrade Beatrice Itubo, said the bill is harmful to the efforts of Nigerian workers to have a decent living wage.
Itubo equally appealed to the state Assembly to reject the bill if it gets to them for concurrence as it is anti-people and targeted at enslaving workers in the country.
Comrade Beatrice further described the bill as an anti-labour law and a demonstration of the aspirations of the unnamed governors to further dehumanize Nigerian workers under their employ.
According to her, collective bargaining will go along way to stabilize the minimum wage issue, urging that the federal government should discard the contemplation of abandoning the issue.
Responding to a question on the state of the already signed minimum wage domestication in Rivers State, the NLC State leader said the state government under Governor Nyesom Wike has signed the necessary documents approving the commencement of payments of the #30,000 minimum to Rivers State workers and advised any worker who has complaint on it to reach out to the NLC Secretariat for further action.
Responding on behalf of the Speaker of the Rivers State Assembly, Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani, Clerk of the House, Stanford Oba, welcomed the protesters and assured the organized labour that the Assembly will look into the matter.
Our correspondent reports that the protest kicked off from the NLC State Secretariat in D-Line Port Harcourt and terminated at the State House of Assembly Complex.
