Labour insists on N250000 minimum wage after meeting Tinubu
The organised labour has insisted on N250,000 minimum wage as the meeting with President Bola Tinubu adjourned without a conclusive agreement.
Recall that Intel Region earlier reported that the leaders organised labour comprising of Nigeria Labour Congres (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) engaged in consultation talks with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.
Speaking with State House Correspondents after the meeting, the NLC president Joe Ajaero, said labour leaders went for discussion, not negotiation.
Ajaero also said the positions of N250,000 for Labour and N62,000 for the Federal Government still stands.
Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Festus Osifo, said they discussed, and after explaining their position, the President also made his remarks.
He did not disclose details of the discussions of the meeting.
Talks for a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers have been on for a while. The Minimum Wage Act of 2019, which made ₦30,000 the minimum wage, expired in April 2024. The Act should be reviewed every five years to meet with contemporary economic demands of workers.
Tinubu in January set up a Tripartite Committee to negotiate a new minimum wage for workers. The committee comprises the Organised Labour, representatives of federal and state governments as well as the Organised Private Sector.
However, the committee members failed to reach an agreement on a new realistic minimum wage for workers, forcing labour to declare an indefinite industrial action on Monday, June 3, 2024. Businesses were paralysed as labour shut down airports, hospitals, the national grid, banks, National Assembly, and state assemblies’ complexes.
The labour unions said the current minimum wage of N30,000 can no longer cater to the well-being of an average Nigerian worker, saying the government should offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures, attendant effects of the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex windows of the current administration.
Both the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) leadership subsequently resumed talks with the representatives of the Federal Government, states, and the Organised Private.
On Friday, June 7, 2024, the two sides (labour and the government) still failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped again its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000 and offered workers ₦62,000.
Both sides submitted their reports to the President who is expected to make a decision and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to pass a new minimum wage bill to be signed into law by the President.
