Labour wants N497,000, FG laments paucity of funds

The tripartite committee on the new minimum wage has postponed its decision until Tuesday, May 28 in order to continue its discussion after its meeting in Abuja on Wednesday came to an impasse once more.

At the meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Government, organised labour, and the organised private sector were unable to agree on a new minimum wage.
According to sources present at the meeting, the administration first refused to budge from the N54,000 it had suggested on Tuesday, claiming a lack of funding.

However, when the committee took a half-hour break to continue their discussions, the government was compelled to offer the sum of N57,000.
The well-informed sources stated that at the conclusion of the break, the OPS and the government both suggested N57,000 as the minimum salary.

However, labour rejected the amount.

"The government and the private sector proposed N57,000, and that was before Labor's final offer of N497,000."The government first objected, claiming it lacked the money to change the N54,000 it had originally suggested. We did, however, pause for thirty minutes to continue our discussions.

The planned N57,000 is rejected by Labour, and the meeting has been postponed until Tuesday of the following week.

"Governor Soludo joined us via Zoom, and Governors Obaseki and Uzodinma were in attendance. When it comes to these conversations, the government must be serious.

"The outcome of the National Minimum Wage Committee's negotiation with the Federal Government is not encouraging," stated a top official of the Nigeria Labour Congress. The Federal Government increased it from N54,000 to N57,000, and the organised labour moved from N615,000 to N500,000, and then to N497,000 and the meeting has been adjourned to next week Tuesday.”
He noted that NLC and TUC normally meet before the negotiation meetings commences “to ask ourselves the direction to go.”
The 37-member Tripartite Committee on Minimum salary was established by President Tinubu through Vice President Kashim Shettima on January 30, 2024, in order to develop a new minimum salary before the present N30,000 wage expires on April 18.

The group, whose members include organised labour, the corporate sector, and the federal and state governments, is tasked with proposing a new national minimum wage for the nation.

Shettima encouraged the panel's members to "speedily" come to a decision and turn in their reports ahead of schedule.

Shettima stated, "This timely submission is crucial to ensure the emergence of a new minimum wage."

A zonal public hearing was concurrently held on March 7 in Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, and Abuja in furtherance of its assignment.

Taking into account the current economic downturn and the high cost of living, the NLC and the TUC in several states advocated varying amounts as a living wage.

The TUC proposed N447,000 as the minimum wage, whereas the NLC members in the South-West states wanted N794,000.

The workers at the North-Central zone hearing in Abuja called for N709,000 to be the new national minimum wage, while their South-South counterparts argued for N850,000.
A minimum salary of N485,000 was proposed in the North-West, while N540,000 was asked by the stakeholders in the South-East.