Reps Mull Bill to Enforce Payment of N18,000 Minimum Wage by Foreign Firms

The House of Representatives has commenced an amendment of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2004 to make it mandatory for companies with foreign interests to pay the minimum wage of N18,000 to their workers.

The Act, under its current provisions, exempts such foreign companies from paying the wage as they are included on the list of establishments exempted from the wage policy.

However, on Wednesday, a former trade unionist, Mr. Peter Akpatason, sponsored a bill to amend the Act to reverse the trend.

Akpatason, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress from Edo State, informed the House that while some of those companies might have a fewer number of employees in some cases, they raked in more revenues than companies with a higher number of workers.

The bill was titled, “A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Minimum Wage Act Cap N6, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, to Exclude the Establishments that have Foreign Participation from the List of Establishments Exempted from the Payment of the National Minimum Wage and for Other Matters Related Thereto.”

Akpatason argued that such companies, which did not have up to 50 workers as pegged in the Act, made “millions and billions” of revenue yearly, but did not pay their employees the minimum wage.

To address the issue, he added that the number of workers applicable in such instances should be amended from 50 to 20 to cover the foreign companies.

Akpatason argued that by not paying the minimum wage, the country was also losing the revenues accruable to it from the operations of the companies.

He said the Act defined foreign companies to include firms that had up to 50 per cent equity participation by foreigners.