
MINIMUM WAGE: NLC, TUC REJECT N54,000 FG PROPOSAL, INSIST ON MAY 31 DEADLINE TO EMBARK ON STRIKE
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Tuesday, again, rejected the Federal Government’s new offer of N54,000 as the new national minimum wage, even as the governors on the tripartite committee negotiating the wage increase failed to turn up, stalling negotiation.
The development prompted a few stakeholders at the meeting comprising the NLC and TUC as well as the Federal Government team to adjourn the meeting.
The Federal Government offered to increase the minimum wage to N54,000, a six thousand naira increase from the initial N48,000 it proposed.
Sources at the meeting, however, said that the new proposal from government did not go down well with the labour leaders.
Our source said labour described the government fresh offer as tantamount to reducing the already existing take home pay of workers, especially as the least paid worker earns nothing less than N70,000 monthly.
The labour source further revealed that with the stance of government, it has not really started anything meaningful and time was fast running out.
The meeting which ended in an inconclusive note, however, afforded labour the opportunity to remind the Federal Government of its May 31 ultimatum in which it might be compelled to mobilise for strike.
According to our source, who attended the meeting, “It took them some time to state what they want to pay and they were passing the buck on who will present it and then the Minister of Labour now said they have shifted the ground to N54,000.
“We still told them that, that ground they shifted, they have not started the negotiation. As the take home of the lowest paid worker is over N70,000. So, by their own standard we have not started negotiating minimum wage, what we are negotiating now is wage reduction because what they are now telling us is that if we walk out from there, if we agree on N54,000, that means we will come out and tell people who are already earning N77,000 that their wage has been reduced. We told them that it is not possible for workers to start earning less than what he/she was earning.
“Is it that there is reduction in inflation or that the cost of living has improved, or is it that the cost of food has come down, why will they now be negotiating wage reduction? It’s unthinkable, we cannot involve in this kind of a thing that labour will sit down and be negotiating wage reduction and on what will it be based? Will it be based on the fact that the money they are collecting now since petroleum subsidy was removed has been reduced?
“Or why will they now be talking about wage reduction when even the inflation is going higher and the cost of living is going higher. So, we told them that that is not acceptable, but then we had to adjourn because we cannot continue to negotiate without the presence of governors.
“It will not augur well for the Tripartite Committee. They said they didn’t know why the governors were not there, six of them that are supposed to be on that committee. We told them that this is a serious matter because when they refuse to come even if at the end we agree on anything they will say it’s not bidding on them because they were not there. There was a permanent secretary representing one governor and the person may have no input, so nobody will take decision on their behalf when they are not there. So, we had to adjourn to tomorrow by 4p.m.
“So we said let’s adjourn and invite the governors formally. When they offered N54,000, we told them they have not started, we didn’t see that as any shifting of ground which they promised, shifting ground must start from the point of negotiations for minimum wage, anything below N75,000 is wage reduction, anything below take home of the lowest paid worker is wage reduction. We cannot start negotiating wage reduction.“Already the clock is ticking, we gave them May 31 deadline to conclude negotiations, today is May 21, we have 10 days to go and it will not augur well for this country if negotiations are not concluded on time. This one is no more the case of we didn’t do an agreement, it’s the case of the government not negotiating the minimum wage. I don’t think we need any other notice (for strike). They also said that as far as they are concerned, they are working towards that so that we will conclude before we go to Geneva for the ILO”.