Minimum Wage: TUC Chairman condemns disparity between federal, states workers

As the National Assembly began a public hearing on the new National Minimum Wage Bill, the Kwara Chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nasir Kolawole-Olumoh, has condemned the disparity in the wages proposed for federal and state workers.

Mr Kolawole-Olumoh expressed his view on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in llorin, the Kwara State capital.

According to him, the N30,000 minimum wage proposed by the tripartite committee should supersede any other decision.

He said that the labour unions that advocated the new wage of N30,000 had accommodated the inputs from the representatives of all the workers in the country.

Mr Kolawole-Olumoh decried the submission of N27,000 for workers at states level and N30,000 for workers at the federal level.

He said that the minimum wage must be uniform since both categories of the workforce patronise same markets and are exposed to similar economic conditions.

On inflation, the TUC Chairman insisted that the new minimum wage would not in any way have negative impact on the nation’s economy.

He said that workers in Kwara would only vote for any leader, who would pay the new minimum wage of N30,000 for its workforce.

The labour leader called on government at all levels to cut all forms of reckless and unnecessary spending to accommodate the payment of the new minimum wage for their workers. (NAN)