Organised labour has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly (NASS) will determine their next course of action following its recent stalemated negotiations on a new national minimum wage. This is even as industry experts and financial analysts have noted that the economy is on a tough road to recovery and that the minimum wage agitation and return of fuel subsidy will further complicate the process and prospect of early recovery......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
Recall that the tripartite committee on minimum wage ended negotiations without an agreement on Friday, June 8, due to a sharp division in offers between the organised private sectors (OPS) and the labour unions.
Legit understands that labour consists of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
Contrary to expectations, the federal government’s tripartite committee, the negotiating team, added N2,000 to its earlier offer of N60,000. Interestingly, labour rejected the offer and proposed N250,000.
As a result of the deadlock, the committee resolved to take both the N62,000 offer by the FG’s team, which has the backing of the OPS and the N250,000 now demanded by labour to President Tinubu for further action.
Labour reacts as Tinubu, NASS keeps mum
One of the members of labour’s negotiating team said President Tinubu and the National Assembly (NASS) will determine the next step organised labour would take, Vanguard reported.
He said:
“At this point, we are looking up to the President and the National Assembly to right the wrong done by the government negotiators and their OPS counterpart. It was a high level conspiracy among the federal government negotiators, the state governors and the OPS.
“Members of OPS hid under the bogus name of small and medium enterprises, SMEs, to claim they cannot pay reasonable wages.
“For the federal government side, members of the team, besides ensuring that Mr President did not know the true situation of things, members did everything, including threats, to ensure we did not move forward.
“What Mr President and the National Assembly do will determine our next line of action. After that, we can hold our organs’ meetings to decide our responses. For now, we have to wait. That is all I can say.”
Father Mbaka’s reaction to N62,000 as minimum wage
In a similar development, Legit.ng on Sunday, June 9, reported that state governments were urged to be reasonable to the plights of Nigerian workers amid hardship.
The outspoken Catholic priest Ejike Mbaka made this call as he reacted angrily to the stances of the state governors and the leadership of the senate to labour’s demand for a minimum wage increment.
Father Mbaka maintained that since governors and legislators are civil servants, they should also earn N62,000 as national wage.