Minimum Wage: Tinubu’s Meeting With Labour Leaders Ends With No Deal

Thursday’s meeting between President Bola Tinubu and leadership of organised labour over the lingering new minimum wage controversy has ended with no deal yet.

Prime Business Africa had reported that Tinubu was meeting with presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo respectively to have an amicable resolution of the new minimum wage controversy.

At the heart of the controversy is that while the Federal Government offered to pay N62,000, organised labour has insisted on N250,000 as a national minimum wage.

The Tripartite Committee on the new national minimum wage had recently submitted the two figures to the President, who decided to consult with all the relevant stakeholders to resolve all the contentious issues before sending any figure to the National Assembly through the Executive Bill.

Prime Business Africa reports that the meeting, which held behind closed doors at the State House Abuja, had in attendance from the government side, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume; the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; Minister of Health, and coordinating Minister of Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate; Minister of Education, Prof Mamman Tahir; and Minister of State for Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.

Speaking after the meeting, the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, said no compromise was reached and that the status remains. Ajaero said the meeting was not really for a negotiation of figures for the new minimum wage but a roundtable discussion.

He said: “In real terms, it wasn’t a negotiation, it was a discussion.

“We had all the conversations with his team. We didn’t go into naira and kobo. “The status remain. We recommended N250,000 and the Federal Government said N62,000. That is where we are as at now.”

The NLC president disclosed that they will have another meeting next week.

On his part, the TUC President also said they did not discuss “naira and kobo” with the President during the meeting.

“The meeting was not about negotiation. We just had discussions and we did not discuss naira and kobo, but the meeting continues in a week’s time,” Osifo said.