The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, expressed its resolve to avert the planned nationwide strike declared by the Organised Labour over non-implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage.
Chairman, House Committee on Labour and Productivity, Hon Ali Wudil who gave the assurance at the Committee’s inaugural meeting held in Abuja, however, noted that the leadership of the labour Unions were unable to attend the meeting as a result of the ongoing conciliatory meeting between Federal Government and organised labour.
The lawmaker, who reiterated the house resolve to ensure industrial harmony between labour and employers of labour in the public and private sectors respectively under the new democratic dispensation urged all the parties to find an amicable resolution to the lingering crisis before the deadline issued by the workers.
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According to him, “right now, there is a pending strike by Labour Congress we invited to hear their own part on what is going on in terms the minimum wage. Unfortunately, they sent apology that we should give them another date because they are holding meeting with the Federal Government.
“We will give them a date or maybe after the meeting they will come and brief the Committee.”
While speaking on the increasing unemployment rate in the country, Hon Wudil underscored the need for National Directorate of Employment, NDE, to step up action in addressing youth unemployment through massive job creation in the country.
According to him, “If you take NDE there is a lot of unemployment among our youths that are out of jobs that need the training in terms of skills and crafts that we need to train them. So we need to sit down to make sure that a lot of unemployed graduates receive the training from NDE.”
He also expressed displeasure over the failure of employers of labour who fail to comply with the provisions of the Employee Compensation Act which seeks to protect workers from workplace accident.
According to him, “the Committee has the mandate to oversight six agencies, namely: Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Productivity Centre (NPC), Michael Imoudu Labour Studies, National Salaries and Wages Commission and Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
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