By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu will sign the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (Amendment Bill) after the Senate and the House of Representatives speedily passed it on Tuesday.
The bill, which scaled second and third readings at both legislative chambers on the National Assembly just minutes after it was transmitted by President Bola Tinubu, was instantly passed separately.
In a unanimous vote after a clause consideration in the Committee of the Whole, the National Minimum Wage Bill scaled third reading and was passed at the Senate.
The House also passed the bill immediately just like the Senate.
Earlier, the President transmitted the National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.
Mr Tinubu separately wrote the Senate and the House of Representatives requesting expeditious consideration of a bill for an Act to amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019 to increase the National Minimum Wage from N30,000 to N70,000.
He also asked the lawmakers to reduce the time for periodic review of the national minimum wage from five years to three years and related matters.
Last Thursday, President Tinubu and the leadership of the Labour Unions – Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
This followed a series of talks and actions between labour leaders and the President in the last few weeks after months of failed talks between labour organs and a tripartite committee on minimum wage constituted by the President in January.
The committee, which comprised state and federal governments and the Organised Private Sector, had proposed N62,000 while labour insisted on N250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers who currently earn N30,000 as minimum wage.
Labour had said N30,000 was unsustainable for any worker going by the economic vagaries of inflation and high cost of living which followed the removal of petrol subsidy by the President.
Despite its initial insistence on N250,000 as the new minimum wage, The labour unions accepted the President’s offer of N70,000 last Thursday.
Afterwards, the President of the NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, said they accepted the N70,000 and rejected a proposal by Mr Tinubu to pay N250,000 minimum wage on a condition to increase petrol prices.
He also said unions agreed to the N70,000 offer because the minimum wage won’t be reviewed once in five years anymore but once every three years.
