The President of the United Labour Congress (ULC) Joe Ajaero, has said that the Council Of State does not have the power to fix salaries or wages.

His statement follows the council’s approval of N27,000 as the new minimum wage for the country.

Mr Ajaero during his appearance on Channels Television’s News at 10, said that what the council did was illegal.

“What the Council of State has done is illegal. The Council of State doesn’t have powers to fix salaries and wages,” he said on Tuesday.

He stated that what the council can do is to advise the President and not to announce a figure to Nigerians.

According to Mr Ajaero, the Tripartite Committee had already submitted N30,000 to President Muhammadu Buhari which he says is supposed to be transmitted to the National Assembly today.

The Federal Government also approved N30,000 for its workers disclosed by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on Tuesday.

But the ULC President questioned the rationale between the different payments for the state and federal workers,

He said, “This is the first time in history that there will be a discriminatory national wage, one for state and the other for federal.

He further noted that the union will stick to the N30,000 which had been deliberated on.

The Tripartite committee, chaired by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms Ama Pepple, had submitted the report, which contained the recommended figure, to President Muhammadu Buhari on November 6, 2018, after many months of deliberations.

Prior to the committee’s recommendation last year, state governors had offered to pay N22,500 as minimum wage.

Against the backdrop of the committee recommending N30,000 on November 15, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum insisted that the states cannot pay the amount, leading to criticism by organised Labour which insisted on N30,000.

On January 8, 2019, the Nigeria Labour Congress held a nationwide protest over what it said was the delay by the Federal Government to transmit a new minimum wage bill to the National Assembly.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

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