New minimum wage bill passes second reading at House of Reps

THE new National Minimum Wage bill on Thursday passed second reading at the House of Representatives.

The bill which was initiated by the Executive and presented by the Deputy Leader, Rep. Idris Wase (APC-Plateau), seeks to increase the national minimum wage from N18,000 to N27,000.

Contributing to the bill, Rep. Edward Pwajok (PDP-Plateau), commended the leadership and members of the house for turning up to deal with the issue of minimum wage.

Pwajok said that section 3 of the bill states that no employer of labour shall pay less than N27,000 to workers.

The lawmaker said that there would be sanctions against any employer who disobeyed the law and that affected workers could approach the National Industrial Court.

Pwajok, however, explained that employers with less than 25 workers were exempted from complying with the new minimum wage bill when passed into law.

In his contribution, the Deputy Whip of the house, Rep. Pally Irease (APC-Edo) said that the bill had to reflect the agreement reached by the tripartite committee on minimum wage.

According to him, some states say N30,000 is not sustainable but it is clear that the cost of governance could be reviewed to pay workers.

Irease urged members of the house who would work on the bill at the committee level to review the amount for the house to pass N30, 000 as the new minimum wage.

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Rep. Kayode Oladele (APC-Ogun) said that the poverty level in the country was very high and it was not a respecter of religion and tribe.

He said when the bill is passed into law; it would further address the menace of poverty in the country.

According to Oladele, when workers earn well, they will be happy and productivity will increase.

He urged members to support the bill and pass it for the benefit of the Nigerian worker.

Rep. Adamu Chika (APC-Niger) said though the increase in the minimum wage was a welcome development, N27, 000 was not acceptable.

He said that economic indices showed that N27, 000 was grossly insufficient and that the clause in the bill which states that the law cannot be reviewed in the next five years should be reduced to two.

Also, Rep. Sunday Karimi (PDP-Kogi) said that given the inflation rate in the country, the increase in minimum wage was a decrease when compared to the last time the wage was reviewed.

According to him, it is not that the government cannot pay N30, 000 but corruption has been the problem.

Karimi said that rather than fighting corruption squarely, political fight was being fought in the guise of fighting corruption.

The legislator said some states were owing workers several months salaries while others were under paying in spite of receiving the Bail-out Funds and Paris Fund.

Karimi said there was a need to pass a law that would prevent public funds from ending up in private accounts.

After many contributions, the house set up an ad hoc committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Rep. Yussuff Lassun, for further legislative process on the bill.

In his ruling, the Speaker of the house, Mr Yakubu Dogara mandated the committee to conduct a public hearing on Monday, January 28 and report to the house on Tuesday, January 29 for passage.