Bauchi: Organized Labour Protests Proposed Removal Of Minimum Wage From Exclusive List
BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – Members of the organized labour in Bauchi State on Wednesday joined their counterparts across the country to stage a peaceful protest against the proposed legislation for the removal of National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative list.
Speaking at the premises of the State House of Assembly, the Bauchi State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Danjuma Saleh who led hundreds of his members to protest against the bill currently at the National Assembly, said that the planned removal is a declaration of war on Nigerian workers.
Saleh said that members of the organized labour were at the State Assembly to reject the anti-workers bill and urged the Speaker to use his position as the Chairman of the Nigerian conference of State Assembly Speakers to mobilize his colleagues against it.
He said; “The NLC and the TUC have decided to embark on national protest to draw the attention of the political authorities to the current move by the National Assembly to dabble into the issue of salaries and wages of teaming workers in the country both in the public and private sector”.
He said that the move to transfer the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list is an affront to the workers’ legitimate rights.
Saleh noted that the national minimum wage is enshrined in the constitution of Nigeria and in line with the global standard as backed by ILO convention to which Nigeria is a signatory since 1961.
The NLC Chairman said that the bill being sponsored by Hon. Garba Datti Ahmed and his colleagues is of serious concern to workers, hence the need for them to reject it.
Responding, the Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Hon Abubakar Suleiman, pledged to mobilize his colleagues at the State Assemblies against the bill.
Suleiman said; “Even though the action of our senior colleagues at the National Assembly is in line with his constitutional requirements and responsibility, however, it is not out of place to consult widely before embarking on any mission or action that touches the life of any citizen, let alone, an important institution like the organized labour”.
