We’re Eager To Champion Its Domestication- Delta TUC
By Chika Kwamba with Agency Report
The Senate and the House of Representatives, yesterday, speedily passed the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (Amendment Bill).
The bill, which scaled second and third readings at both legislative chambers in the National Assembly, just minutes after it was transmitted by President Bola Tinubu, was instantly passed separately by the Red and Green chambers.
In a unanimous vote after a clause consideration in the Committee of the Whole, the National Minimum Wage Bill scaled third reading and was passed at the Senate.
The House of Representatives also passed the bill immediately just like the Senate.
President Tinubu is expected to sign the bill into law.
Earlier, the President transmitted the National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.
The President separately wrote the Senate and the House of Representatives requesting expeditious consideration of a bill for an Act to amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019 to increase the National Minimum Wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.
The President also asked the lawmakers to reduce the time for periodic review of the national minimum wage from five years to three years and related matters.
Last Thursday, Tinubu and the leadership of the Organised Labour agreed on ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The truce between the government and labour sides followed a series of talks between labour leaders and the President in the last few weeks after months of failed talks between labour organs and a tripartite committee on minimum wage constituted by the President in January.
…As TUC Say, We’re Eager To Champion Domestication In Delta
Meanwhile, following the approval of the new minimum wage bill passed by the National Assembly, yesterday, the organised labour in Delta State has expressed eagerness to transmit the wage bill to the state government for domestication once it is signed into law.
Recalled that President Bola Tinubu sent the bill to the Senate yesterday after labour and the federal government agreed on N70,000 minimum wage last Thursday.
Reacting to the development, the Delta State Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Martins Bolum said that once the minimum wage bill gets presidential assent and becomes law the union will not hesitate to approach the state government to domesticate and implement the law and new wage for workers.
He said: “The bill has just been passed. It is not a law until the president signs it. It is only then that the state can implement it. So we are waiting for when the process will be completed, and then we have a document to present to our governor
Earlier, Comr. Bolum affirmed that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori will pay the N70,000 Minimum Wage; “He is a people’s governor. We had earlier discussed this with him and he told us that as soon as it (negotiations) is concluded, he will look for how to go about it. So we do not expect him not to pay.
“Meanwhile, it is a matter of law. Once the National Minimum Wage is signed into law, every governor must pay. Part of the discussions with the President was that the president would handle the governors to make sure that everybody pays. It is a law and if you refuse to pay, you will be disobeying the law. But I do not think we will have any challenge with the Delta State Government“, Bolum said.
