The Federal Executive Council, FEC, yesterday directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to effect payment of the new national minimum wage of N30,000 on or before December 31, 2019.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Senator Ngige further said that FEC approved that payment of the new wage should take effect from April 18, 2019, and that he, in collaboration with the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, have been directed to send the consequential adjustment to states as a template for their negotiations with state governments.
This is even as Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Sunday Dare, said in a tweet yesterday that members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, would also enjoy the new minimum wage.
Ngige said: “Today (yesterday), we sent to FEC our report and the conciliation that was done last week between Organised Labour and the Federal Government of Nigeria on the issue of the new national minimum wage which has been fixed at N30,000 a month and the consequential adjustment that were meant for salaries and wage structures of the public service thereto.
“You will remember that last week when I briefed the press, I told you that the salaries and wage structure are in four classes — Health, Armed Forces Service, Research Institutes and the Paramilitary.
“So, they have percentage increases in their wage structure and for emphasis, the Grade Level-07 compartment received 23.2 per cent rise; Grade Level 08, 20 per cent; Grade Level 09, 19 per cent; Grade Level 10-14, 16 per cent; and Grade Levels 15 to 17, 14 per cent in the CONPPS which is the pure civil service structure and agencies earning the same wages as those in the public service.
“You have the CONRESS AND CONTISS which is compartmental too. They have 23.2 per cent equivalent and 14-16, 10.5 per cent, Police and other security agencies because they have had a pay rise.
“Last year, they were consequentially adjusted to between four and seven per cent; the same goes for the paramilitary, they also have their consequential pay rise.
“So, FEC today (yesterday) approved for us that the financial implications worked out by the National Incomes and Wages Commission that the salaries adjustment should take effect from April 18, 2019, the day the new national minimum wage Act came into being.
“Council also approved that the financial implications are worked out and the payment completed on or before December 2019. Council further directed that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, through the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, effect all these payments before December 31, 2019.
“Council further directed also that the National Income and Wages Commission and the Ministry of Labour and Employment should send the consequential adjustment table down to the states and local governments as an advisory document for their information and guidance for their National Joint Public Service status in their respective states because the national minimum wage is a national law.’’