According to Organised Labour, any minimum pay of ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 that is considered a “starvation wage” for Nigerian workers will not be accepted.
At the most recent Tripartite Committee on Minimum pay meeting on Friday, labor pressed for ₦250,000 as the minimum pay that the typical Nigerian worker should get.
Chris Onyeka, Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), stated on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief program on Monday that “our position is very clear.”
“We have never given thought to taking N62,000 or any other pay that we are aware is insufficient to send Nigerian laborers home.” We’re not going to bargain for a pitiful salary.
“We have never considered using N62,000, much less N100,000. We remain at N250,000 because we felt that was sufficient accommodation for the government and other relevant stakeholders in this specific scenario. Not only are we motivated by frivolities, but also by the reality of the market and the items we purchase on a daily basis, such as bags of rice, yam, garri, etc
According to Onyeka, the Federal Government was granted a one-week grace period last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, which will end at midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
He stated that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the NLC organs would meet to decide whether to resume the statewide industrial action that was eased last week if the National Assembly and the Federal Government did not respond to worker demands by tomorrow, or Tuesday.
“The call is currently with the Federal Government and the National Assembly,” stated the NLC official. We are not calling for it. We want the administration to review and submit an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and we want the National Assembly to consider our demands and the different aspects of the law before creating a National Minimum Act that satisfies them.
“We have offered the Federal Government one week to look at the concerns, and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday), if that does not meet our requirement. In the event that the government does not provide a concrete response by tomorrow, the Organized Labor organs will convene to choose the next course of action.
He responded, “It was clear what we said,” when asked what Labour’s position would be if the government insisted on ₦62,000 instead. We declared that a nationwide, indefinite strike would be eased. It’s as like you’re pausing it. Thus, in the event that a pause is placed on something and our trade union governing bodies determine that it should be lifted, we revert to what was in existence before.
On Monday, June 3, 2024, Labour called an indefinite strike action following weeks of fruitless negotiations over a new national minimum wage for workers. As labor shut down the National Assembly, state assemblies’ complexes, banks, hospitals, airports, and the national grid, business was paralyzed.
The labor 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.
Labour had proposed ₦615,000 as the new minimum wage at the beginning of the negotiations, but they saw fit to lower their demand to ₦497,000, then to ₦494,000.
Additionally, the government and the Organized Private Sector first offered ₦48,000, ₦54,000, ₦57,000, and then ₦60,000; Labour rejected all four proposals, which prompted the strike.
Amidst the impasse that erupted on Monday, June 3, 2024, President Bola Tinubu declared his commitment to a wage exceeding ₦60,000. He further suggested that the government-led side of the tripartite committee hold a week-long meeting with labor to reach a wage agreement.
Convinced, labor “relaxed” its work stoppage on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, approximately twenty-four hours following the walkout. Following that, the heads of the TUC and NLC met again with delegates from the federal government, the states, and the organized private sector.
But on Friday, June 7, 2024, the administration and labor were unable to come to a consensus. The government increased its original ₦60,000 offer to ₦62,000 while labor reduced its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000.
The President received the findings from all parties and is anticipated to make a decision.
