The federal government, organised labour (Trade Union Congress TUC and Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC) and the private sector have proposed three different minimum wages for employees during ongoing minimum wage negotiations.
Mr Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, Director-General of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), that the minimum wage proposed by the different stakeholders is valid in their eyes.
He further applauded the effort of organised labour for returning to the negotiating table after initially walking out last week over the federal government’s proposal.
He stated, “I am happy the government had prevailed on the issue and they would be coming back to the table for the actual negotiations.”
“Everybody figure is valid, Labour N615,000 proposal is valid to the extent of labour reality, government N48,000 is valid to their reality. The private sector’s N54,000 is also valid to the present day reality. Like I said, we have moved back to the negotiation table properly, and we would look at alignment of positions. There will a lot of give and take,”
“Also there will be a consensus on what the National Minimum Wage will be and the committee will then make a recommendation to Mr President,”
Organised Labour agrees to continue negotiation with FG
Also, Organized Labour has announced their agreement to attend the Tripartite Committee on the Minimum Wage negotiation meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
Mr. Etim Okon, Vice President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), confirmed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the TUC had previously walked out of the negotiation meeting after the Federal Government proposed a new minimum wage of ₦48,000 for workers.
Labour also accused the government of failing to provide substantiated data to support their offer, exacerbating the situation. They argued that the lack of transparency and good faith undermines the credibility of the negotiation process.
“The proposal falls significantly short of meeting our needs and aspirations. The federal government has apologised, and the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and we are going to appear and present our demand.”
“We will still be presenting the N615,000. It is what we presented before we walked out, though our submission was not rejected by the government.”
“We only rejected the N48,000 that government presented. Because they did not show us how they arrived at that amount. That is taking cognizance of transportation, housing, food, utilities, health, education among others which are basic needs of the people. So, government should come out clearly with what they are offering with the indices and variables and also how they arrived at that. This is all what we are saying,”