The Upper Chamber and Lower Chamber on Tuesday hastily passed the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (Amendment Bill).
The bill, which passed second and third readings at both legislative chambers in the National Assembly, only minutes after it was passed down by President Bola Tinubu, was immediately passed separately by the red and green chambers.
In a unanimous vote after a clause consideration in the Committee of the Whole, the National Minimum Wage Bill passed third reading and was passed at the Senate.
The lower chamber additionally passed the bill swiftly just like the upper chamber.
President Tinubu is expected to endorse the bill into law.
Earlier, the President communicated the National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.
The President independently wrote the red chamber and lower chamber requesting speedy 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.
The President additionally requested that the lawmakers to bring down the time for occasional review of the national minimum wage from five years to three years and related matters.
Tinubu and the leadership of the Organized Labour agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian wage earners.
The truce between the government and labour sides followed a progression of talks between labour leaders and the President over the most recent couple of weeks following months of failed talks between labour body and a tripartite committee on minimum wage constituted by the President in January.
The committee, which included state and federal governments and the Organized Private Sector, had proposed N62,000 while labour insisted on N250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers who at present earn N30,000 as minimum wage.
Labour had said N30,000 was impractical for any worker going by the monetary notions of inflation and high cost of living which was accompanied with the removal of petrol subsidy by the President.
Regardless of its underlying emphasis on N250,000 as the new minimum wage, Labour embraced the President’s offer of N70,000.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said Labour okayed N70,000 and dismissed a proposal by President Bola Tinubu to pay N250,000 minimum wage on a condition to increment of petrol prices.
He likewise said Labour consented to the N70,000 offer because minimum wage won’t be reviewed once in five years anymore but once every three years.
