By Okey Ndiribe
ABUJA — Despite the intervention of the House of Representatives in the dispute between the organised labour  and  Federal Government  over the non-implementation of the minimum wage law, there is no silver lining yet  in the horizon over the impending general strike declared by the Nigeria  Labour Congress (NLC).

The House had invited the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) for dialogue over last Tuesday’s  declaration of a general strike  to commence Wednesday over the minimum wage dispute.

It was learnt that when  the NLC  delegation met with the leadership of the House of Representatives yesterday, officials  of the National Salaries and Wages Commission  and Budget Office  of the Presidency  who were also present, informed participants at the meeting that the Federal Government could not implement the new minimum wage for all categories in the public sector because the funds were not available.

They also complained that should the new minimum  wage  be effected,  the cost of  salaries for workers in the public sector would balloon by N55 billion which was not accommodated in the budget for the current financial year.

A source told Vanguard: “The officials from the Budget office told us that only  allocations  for workers on salary grades one to six were made in the 2011 appropriation of the Federal Government”

Contacted on the matter the Acting  General Secretary of NLC Owei Lakemfa refused to comment but hinted that no progress had been achieved in the negotiation with the Federal Government despite the intervention of the House of Representatives.

It would be recalled that the leadership of the NLC last Tuesday declared a three day nation-wide warning strike to commence next Wednesday  to compel both public  and private sector employers  to implement the new minimum wage law.

The Governors Forum had stirred the hornet’s nest over the vexed issue  few weeks ago  when it asked the Federal Government to remove the subsidy from premium motor spirit  (petrol)   so that  the states could utilize  expected  bigger  allocations  from the federation account to pay their workers the new minimum wage.

The NLC had rejected their demand and pointed out  that they never presented that condition during the negotiation for a new minimum wage.

The NLC had further produced documents to indicate that some of the state governments even proposed salaries that were far higher than what the NLC eventually settled for during the tripartite negotiations.

Investigations by Vanguard revealed that states like Abia, Kwara and Kebbi proposed to pay their workers N46,700 and N30,000  respectively while Anambra and  Federal Capital Territory offered to pay their workers N25,000 as minimum wage.