By Uche Amunike
The Senate and House of Representatives have quickly signed the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (amendment bill), Tuesday, which went through second and third readings just a few minutes of being transmitted by President Bola Tinubu and subsequently approved separately by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
After a clause-by-clause consideration in the Committee of the Whole, the National Minimum Wage Bill got a unanimous vote, which led to the successful passage of its third reading and approval by the Senate.
The House of Representatives mirrored the Senate’s actions, immediately passed the bill, which is being expected to be signed into law by the president .
President Tinubu had separately written to the Senate and the House of Representatives with the request that they should quickly consider the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 by increasing the National Minimum Wage from N30,000 to N70,000.
The president also requested that the lawmakers should reduce the period for periodic review of the national minimum wage from five years to three years, while addressing related matters in the process.
Recall that last Thursday, President Tinubu and the leadership of the organized Labor reached an agreement that N70,000 will be the new minimum which for Nigerian workers. This agreement followed series of talks between labor leaders and the president in the past few weeks after months of unsuccessful negotiations between the labor organizations and a Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage that was constituted by the president in January.
This committee included representatives from state and federal governments and the organized private sector and they proposed N62,000 while labor insisted on N250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers who currently earn N30,000.
On their part, Labour argued that N30,000 was not sustainable because of the economic challenges of inflation and the high cost of living, which was caused by the removal of fuel subsidy by the President.
Recall that in June 2024, inflation hit record levels at 34.19 percent, while food inflation hit more than 40.87 percent, according to the record of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which was publicly shared.
Eventually, even though the increase was much less than they had demanded, labor accepted the president’s offer of N70,000 last Thursday, putting aside, their initial insistence on N250,000.
According to the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress , Joe Ajaero, Labour accepted N70,000 and rejected a proposal by President Bola Tinubu to pay N250,000 on the condition of increased petrol prices.
He also stated that the reason why Labour agreed to the N70,000 offer was because the minimum wage would be reviewed every three years, instead of the usual five years.
The transmission of the minimum wage bill took place about six weeks after President Tinubu stated in his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024, that an Executive Bill on the National Minimum Wage for workers would be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
