As the battle to review the new minimum wage continues, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Wednesday slashed their earlier demand by N118,000 to N497,000.
The meeting which is a continuation of the negotiation earlier held on Tuesday, May 21, had the organised labour shifting grounds from the earlier N615,000 demanded.
THE WHISTLER gathered that the federal government was represented by the minister of state for Labour, Nkiruka Onyejeocha who took the lead during the negotiation. Also in attendance are the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy of Nigeria Wale Edun and the Minister, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning Abubakar Bagudu.
The labour unions were represented by the TUC President, Festus Osifo, NLC President Joe Ajaero and other relevant stakeholders.
Recall that THE WHISTLER had reported that the federal government proposed N54,000 as the minimum wage. This would be the third proposal the labour unions rejected.
Speaking after the meeting in Abuja which ended by 9:05 pm, a top source in the tripartite committee told THE WHISTLER that the Organised Private sector added an extra N3,000 to the N54,000 earlier proposed.
However, on the Labour side, the source said, “Initially when the meeting started, Labour reviewed their demands for N500,000, but when the federal government and the organised private sector (OPS) added N3,000 they were disappointed and subsequently reduced theirs by N3,000.
“So the new demand is N497,000 and that is the position Labour is taking, although Labour has been asked to reconvene by Tuesday next week”.
The source reiterated that labour unions were disappointed as the addition was not a reflection of the current economic woes of the country.
“Looking at the outcome of the negotiations, Labour was disappointed, the negotiation is not supposed to be going by an additional N3,000 or N6,000 increase, something has to be done,” the source added.