Ngige made this known even as he assured the organized labour that their request to have the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage reconvened would be met, as he said the committee would now be reconvened on Thursday next week to conclude its work.
Already, organized labour had declared a nationwide strike to commence on Thursday morning and the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, declared after the meeting that the strike commences as planned.
Wabba stated that even though they had a meeting where the Minister of Labour tried to update them, he added that since the time labour had issued the notice, till the declaration of the strike, there has been no consultation or meeting.
“The 14-day ultimatum issued to the Federal Government did not get to me, otherwise we would have addressed it scientifically the way it should be done,” Ngige said while addressing newsmen after a closed-door meeting with the leadership of Organised labour on Wednesday.
However, he stated that the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage will reconvene its meeting on Thursday, October 4, to conclude its negotiation process.
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The Minister had summoned the meeting with organised labour leaders who were also part of the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage to update them on government decision.
The minister said: “This administration is a labour friendly government and this, we have shown in many ways and we will continue to show it.
“One of the ways that we are going to show it is by implementing the new national minimum wage and in doing this, we need to fix a base for the lowest paid worker in Nigeria.
“We are resuming next week, precisely on Thursday, October 4 and the meeting may split over to October 5, as we normally use two days for the meeting.
“So, we are reconvening the meeting on October 4, and all the process have been put in place.
He explained that the Labour leaders had been informed about the plan to now reconvene the meeting next week and are expected to communicate to their members.
On the already declared nationwide strike, he pointed out that there is no need to have any strike in the country on the issue or any other.
He assured organised labour that before the meeting on the October 4, all the necessary demands by organised labour would have being factored in.
Ngige added: “Part of our consultations means that the Economic Management Team which is managing the entire economy of the country would have something to work on.
“Already they are working on it with the National Salaries and Wages Commission and it is expected that before that meeting on October 4. They would have been through with the work.
“So everything is subject to negotiation. On Thursday, October 4, we are going back to the negotiating table.”
According to him, the Federal Government was optimistic that the committee would wrap up in October and all other processes.
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