Reps to debate N70,000 wage implementation delay
The House of Representatives Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity has said it will be looking into the delayed implementation of the newly approved N70,000 minimum wage by state governments.
Speaking with The PUNCH on Tuesday, the chairman of the House committee Adegboyega Adefarati, expressed the readiness of his colleagues to look into the matter as soon as they were back from the National Assembly’s annual recess on September 17.
“We’ll look into it immediately we resume from recess. We can just appeal to the governors to comply with the Act,” he said.
The PUNCH reported that the Federal Government and organised labour on July 19 settled for N70,000 new minimum wage, up from N30,000 after months of back-and-forth negotiations.
The President signed the new minimum wage bill into law on July 29, noting that payment commencement would be backdated to May.
However, over a month since the signing of the new minimum wage into law, many states have yet to start payment.
While some states, including Gombe, declared that they would have difficulty paying, others have constituted panels to fashion out the modalities for complying with the N70,000 new minimum wage.
Findings by The PUNCH revealed that Edo, Adamawa, Osun, Taraba, Enugu and Ebonyi states have commenced the payment of N70,000 to their civil servants.
