Minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige has made known the stand of the Federal Government as regards the minimum wage issue.
The Minister on Tuesday revealed that the federal government cannot meet the demand of Labour.
According to him, the economy will grind to a halt like that of Venezuela, should the government accede to Labour’s request, the minister added.
Although the Federal Government has started paying workers on Grade Levels 1 to 6, the N30,000 minimum wage, there is presently a disagreement with Labour unions over the percentage of increment for senior workers.
Ngige revealed that about 1.4 million workers in federal public service would take 33 per cent of government budget in 2020, should Labour’s demand be accepted.
Ngige explained that the government would have no money to build roads, airports, rails, health centres and schools if it should spend 33 per cent of the 2020 budget to pay salaries and wages.
The government cannot shut down the economy because it wants to pay workers’ wages, he said.
However, after talks yesterday, both the government and Labour shifted grounds in their positions on the implementation of the new wage.
The negotiations however continues on Wednesday (today) in Abuja.
