Labour, FG, and Private Sector Will Resuming Talks on Minimum Wage This Friday

On Friday, May 31, 2024, the Tripartite Committee meeting on the new minimum wage will recommence because Organised Labour has been invited by the Federal Government to participate in further negotiations.

The Presidents of the two labour organisations, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), received a letter signed by the Committee's Secretary, Ekpo Nta.

The committee has scheduled seven meetings in a row to try and reach a consensus on the new minimum wage. This one will be the seventh.

The last meeting on Tuesday ended in a standoff as Organised Labour turned down the Federal Government's offer of ₦60,000.
However, the committee's labour representatives lowered their demands downward from the initial ₦497,000 naira minimum wage request to ₦494,000 naira

For months, labour unions and the Federal Government have been locked in negotiations over a new minimum wage with the former giving an ultimatum of May 31st.
The minimum wage, which labour had originally sought to be ₦615,000, has since been cut twice to ₦494,000. The labour unions rejected the initial proposals of ₦48,000 and ₦54,000 made by the government and the Organised Private Sector.
We vehemently disagree.
Labour rejected the new N60,000 minimum wage proposal from the Federal Government during a minimum wage committee meeting on Tuesday.

Festus Osifo, the leader of the TUC, claims that the new plan is out of step with the country's economic circumstances. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he claimed that Nigeria's inflation rate as of April 2024 was 33.69%, meaning that labour had to "completely reject" the Federal Government's most recent offer of ₦60,000.

Therefore, we totally reject it. We expect the government to act responsibly. "Let them come and explain to us how a family will make ends meet on the ₦60,000 minimum wage," he uttered.

"Remember that even though it is May 28 and we issued our ultimatum on May 1, it still stands. That indicates unequivocally that we still have three days to find a solution to this issue.

President Bola Tinubu has implemented numerous reforms since taking office, such as the floating of the naira and the elimination of fuel subsidies.

Osifo, however, has charged that the Tinubu administration lacks "deep thinking" and has made erroneous policy decisions.

Thus, we would give them a rating of 2.5 out of 10, which is 25%,” the TUC chief argued.

The labour unions bemoaned the fact that not all governors were paying the current wage award, which expired in April 2024, five years after former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum Wage Act of 2019, claiming that the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 could no longer support the well-being of the average Nigerian worker. Every five years, the Act should be reviewed to ensure it still meets the needs of modern workers in terms of the economy.

The new government proposals were deemed "unsubstantial" by NLC President Joe Ajaero. Regarding the current ₦30,000 wage paid to workers in the nation, the labour leader had stated, "It is still not substantial compared to what we need to make a family moving."

"Workers' economies are destroyed. There is no economy among the labourers. The bourgeoisie's economy and the worker's economy, in my opinion, are the two main economies in the nation. In order for us to have a meeting place, I believe we need to harmonise this," Ajaero had stated.