The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has staged a protest at the National Assembly over the proposed removal of the minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List and transfer to the Concurrent List.
The union kicked off the protest at the Federal Secretariat and later moved to the National Assembly with hundreds of protesters chanting slogans against the proposed bill.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, while speaking on the relevance of the protest said the bill was not accepted by Nigerian workers.
He demanded the immediate withdrawal of the proposed bill.
Wabba said failure to withdraw the bill would provoke the anger of Nigerian workers and the organised labour would resort to the declaration of national.
Addressing the protesters, House Leader, Ado Doguwa and Deputy Whip, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi assured them the national assembly would not enact any law against Nigerian workers.
The bill seeks the transfer of minimum wage to Concurrent List, making it possible for each state government to individually negotiate how much it intends to pay workers as minimum wage, unlike the current arrangement that enforces nationally negotiated wage on each state government.
According to Wabba, the removal will introduce politics into wage determination and sabotage the collective bargaining principle.