Council of State endorses N27,000 as National Minimum Wage, says ‘states free to negotiate with workers’

The National Council of State on Tuesday endorsed N27,000 as new National Minimum Wage, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has disclosed.
He, however, said the Federal Government would pay its workers N30,000 as its minimum wage as demanded by organised labour.
Ngige made this known when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council’s meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The minister revealed that the bill on the new minimum wage of N27,000 would be transmitted to the National Assembly “in the next 24 hours for passage into law.
According to him, the N27,000 is the benchmark for all employers of labour with more than 25 workers on their payroll, emphasising that no employer of labour with more 25 workers should pay less than the proposed N27,000.
The minister, however, stated that the Federal Government had resolved to pay its workers N30,000 as the new national minimum while state governments are free to negotiate with their respective staff.
The organised labour had insisted on a N30,000 minimum wage as proposed by the Ama Pepple tripartite committee, while the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) proposed N24,000.
The (NCS) meeting, which lasted for about three hours, was attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, Abdulsalami Abubakar and the former Head of the Interim Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan.
Others, who attended the meeting, included three former Chief Justices of Nigeria, namely; Muhammadu Uwais, Alfa Belgore and Mahmud Mohammed.
However, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnogen, former military President Ibrahim Babangida and Gen. Yakubu Gowon were absent at the meeting.