The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige on Wednesday reaffirmed Government's position on the now-controversial New Minimum Wage.
The Minister while addressing State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting insisted on the payment of N24,000 per month as the proposed new wage, a development that may trigger renewed agitation by Organized Labour.
He also disclosed that FEC approved the implementation of 'No Work No Pay' principle when Federal workers embark on strike. He explained that the decision followed the report submitted by a ten-man Committee set up to review contentious issues between government and labour.
“FEC in turn empanelled a committee of ten which I chaired to do a government Draft White Paper on those contentious areas that the technical committee had looked at.
“These contentious areas are enforcement of section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act Law of the Federation 2004; this is the section that deals with a lockout of workers by their employers without declaring redundancy appropriately.
“Because in some establishments, especially in the private sector, workers are locked out by their employers; so the law there says that if you lock your workers without passing through the normal channel-due process.
“For the period of the lockout, the worker is assumed to be at work and will receive all the remunerations and allowances, benefits accruing to him for the period and that period will also be counted for him as a pensionable period in the computation of his pension.
“But when workers go on strike, the principle of no-work-no-pay will also apply because that principle is enshrined in the same section 43 of the Labour Act,’’ he said.
