TheCable

The federal government has finally reached an agreement with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on the implementation of the new minimum wage.

The two parties reached the agreement on Friday morning after a series of negotiations which started on Tuesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari had signed an amendment to the minimum wage law which increased the minimum pay for government workers to N30,000, but the government and organised labour disagreed on how the increase will be implemented across board.

Labour was demanding a 29 percent salary increase for officers on salary level 07 to 14, and 24 percent adjustment for officers on salary grade level 15 to 17.

But the federal government offered 11 percent salary increase for officers on grade level 07 to 14, and 6.5 percent adjustment for workers on grade level 15 to 17.

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, who spoke after the meeting which lasted about seven hours, gave a breakdown of how both parties agreed the wage would be implemented.

He said: “For COMESS wage structure Grade level 7 gets 23 per cent, Salary grade level 8 gets 20 per cent, Salary grade level 9 gets 19 per cent Salary grade level 10 -14 gets 16 per cent while Salary grade level 15-17 gets 14 per cent

”For those on the second category of wages structure, CONHES, CONRRISE, CONTISS etc, Level 7 gets 22.2 percent, Level 8-14 gets 16 per cent , Level 15-17 gets 10.5 percent.”

Ngige added that the third category of the country’s wage structure concerning military and paramilitary officers were also contained in the agreement but “theirs will be communicated through the appropriate channels.”