Victor Ezeja
Organised labour has rejected N62,000 offered by the Nigerian government and Organise Private Sector as minimum wage and instead, proposed N250,000.
This was the outcome of the new minimum wage negotiations by the Tripartite Committee, on Friday night.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelLabour had embarked on a nationwide strike on Monday, following Federal Government’s failure to meet its demands but on Tuesday, suspended the industrial action for one week to allow for the conclusion of ongoing negotiations. Before the strike, labour had reduced its minimum wage proposal from N615,000 to N494,000.
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The Federal had said it was committed to a minimum wage above N60,000 which made the labour unions suspend the strike being optimistic that further negotiations would yield a positive result. However, with the outcome they appear to be disenchanted.
It was gathered that the leadership of the tripartite committee would forward the positions of labour and representative of the Federal Government and OPS to President Bola Tinubu who is expected to study them and send a bill to the National Assembly for the final consideration of the new national minimum wage Act.
When asked whether Labour would accept a few thousand naira additions to the last offer of the tripartite committee, the TUC boss said, “No, we also told them that it’s not that we’d get to the table and you start adding ₦1, ₦2, ₦3,000 as you were doing and we got some good guarantees here and there that they would do something good.”
N60,000 Minimum Wage not Sustainable – Governors
Meanwhile state governors under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) have said they can’t pay N60,000 minimum wage proposed by the Federal Government, adding that it is not sustainable.
They made their position known in a statement signed by the Acting Director, Media Affairs and Public Relations of the Forum, Mrs Halima Ahmed.
The governors appealed to the Tripartite Committee to agree on a minimum wage that would be fair and sustainable, adding that if the current proposed amount is allowed to be implemented, many states would end up spending all their monthly allocations on payment of workers’ salaries with nothing left for development projects.
“All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and can not fly,” the NGF stated “It will simply mean that many states will spend all their FAAC allocations on just paying salaries with nothing left for development purposes.
“In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the collective interest of the country, including workers.
“We appeal that all parties involved, especially the labour unions, consider all the socioeconomic variables and settle for an agreement that is sustainable, durable, and fair to all other segments of the society who have legitimate claim to public resources,” the governors said.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
