Minimum wage meeting continues on Sunday, says Ngige

Chris Ngige, minister of labour, says conciliation on the national minimum wage will continue on Sunday despite the court injunction restraining organised labour from embarking on strike.

On Friday, the National Industrial Court had ordered the organised labour not to go ahead with the nationwide strike scheduled for November 6

Sanusi Kado, a judge, gave the order in a ruling on an ex parte application moved on behalf of the federal government by Dayo Apata, solicitor-general of the federation and permanent secretary, ministry of justice.

“The conciliation meeting involving the Organised Labour, the Organised Private Sector and Government scheduled for Sunday, November 4 at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation by 6pm is still on course and will hold,’’ he said in a statement.

Ngige said this will be followed by another meeting of the national tripartite minimum wage committee meeting on Monday, November 5 at the same venue.

The minister appealed to all tripartite members to attend the meetings in the interest of the nation and finding a solution to the minimum wage impasse.

While labour demanded an upward review of the minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000, the federal government proposed N24,000 while governors suggested N22,500.

Labour rejected the proposals and, accusing the government of not showing any sign of seriousness to resolve the workers’ welfare.