By Victor Ahiuma-Young

ABUJA—THE Federal Government yesterday said the N18,000 new minimum wage would be applicable to all classes of public workers and in private organisations with more than 50 persons, even as a policy compelling workers in factories and construction sites to wear protective kits would henceforth be enforced throughout the country.

Speaking through the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu,Federal Government also announced the establishment of a government backed employment platform providing information on employment to employers and applicants through the internet and mobile telephones.

The Labour Minister also disclosed that a total of 162,697 unemployed school leavers, graduates of tertiary institutions and retired workers benefited from the government’s job creation programmes from 2009 to September 2010 through the National Directorate of Employment, NDE.

Chief Wogu spoke at the presentation of his Ministry’s activities in the last one year at a briefing chaired by the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili and graced by several labour stakeholders including Vice-President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Issa Aremu, NLC Secretary General Comrade John Odah, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Professor Simon Ogamdi, among others.

On expartriate use of labour

A statement by Mr. Emmanuel Aziken, Media Assistant to the Labour Minister, noted that Chief Wogu, expressed government’s determination to drive through a policy to compel construction companies to regulate the carriage of their staff and affirmed that the government would no longer tolerate the “haulage of workers in dehumanising” trailers.

Under the policy, he said that a time limit would be given for companies to adhere to the new provisions and expressed government’s displeasure with expatriate companies who had been evading the utilisation of qualified Nigerian labour, saying that “the practice under which some expartriate companies who win big government jobs import skilled and unskilled labour from their home countries would no longer be tolerated.”

He traced the delay in the enactment of the Minimum Wage Act to the needed legal and procedural processes which he said were required as the new bill would be
legally binding.

Courting labour unions

The Minister also expressed his intention to hold town hall meetings with all stakeholders in the labour sector as a way of consolidating already strong relationship with social partners.

While noting several challenges faced by the administration in the management of industrial unrest, Wogu praised the leadership of the nation’s trade unions for ushering in an unprecedented phase of industrial harmony despite the difficulties of the economy.

He highlighted a fresh approach of proactive engagements with the unions involving his personal linkages as the basis for the successes recorded in nipping several strike threats by organised labour unions.

In her address, Professor Akunyili praised the dynamism of Labour Minister who she said had made an otherwise obscure and uninteresting agency of government to become very vibrant.