The organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), has rejected the proposed N62,000 minimum wage offer by the federal government.
Describing the offer as “starvation wage,” the NLC, in a statement on Monday, mentioned that organised labour would not be accepting the offer proposed by the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government.
The Labour unions said should the FG and NASS fail to act on their $250,000 demand by Tuesday, the NLC and TUC organs would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide strike relaxed last week.
According to organised labour, the one-week grace period granted to the Federal Government on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, will end at midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
Labour has stated that if the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on workers’ demands by tomorrow (Tuesday), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) will meet to decide whether to resume the nationwide industrial action that was lifted last week.
Chris Onyeka, the NLC’s Assistant General Secretary, revealed this on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday.
The NLC official said, “The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an executive bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various facts of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.
“If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues, and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the organised labour will meet to decide on what next.”
Reponding to questions on what the decision of Labour would be should the government insist on ₦62,000, he said, “It was clear what we said. We said we were relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and the organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”
He mentioned that Labour won’t accept any ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 “starvation wage” as the minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
In a recent meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage, he advocated for a living wage of ₦250,000 for Nigerian workers.
He stated that labour will not accept the government’s recent offer of ₦62,000 or the ₦100,000 proposed by some people and economists.
Onyeka said, “We have never considered accepting ₦62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.
“We have never contemplated $100,000, let alone $62,000. We are still at ₦250,000; that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation. We are not just driven by frivolities but by the realities of the market place; realities of things we buy every day: bags of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”
Following weeks of fruitless talks on a higher minimum wage for workers in the country, Labour called an indefinite strike on Monday, June 3, 2024. Businesses were halted when workers shut down airports, hospitals, the national grid, banks, the National Assembly, and state assembly buildings.
Labour unions argue that the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 is insufficient for the well-being of Nigerian workers due to inflationary pressures and the administration’s policies of removing petrol subsidies and unifying the forex windows.
The labour unions also expressed concern that not all governors are paying the current wage award, which would expire in April 2024, five years after former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum Wage Act of 2019. The Act should be revised every five years to ensure that it meets the current economic demands of workers.
In January 2024, President Bola Tinubu established a tripartite committee to negotiate the country’s new minimum wage.
During discussions, Labour initially proposed a minimum wage of ₦615,000, but later reduced it to ₦497,000 and finally ₦494,000.
Initially, the government and the organised private sector proposed ₦48,000, ₦54,000, ₦57,000, and later ₦60,000. However, all four offers were rejected by Labour, leading to the strike.
On Monday, June 3, 2024, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, stated that the President was committed to a wage above ₦60,000 and that the government side of the tripartite committee would meet with labour for one week to reach an agreement.
Persuaded, labour “relaxed” its industrial action on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, approximately 24 hours following the strike.
The TUC and NLC leadership then resumed talks with officials from the federal government, states, and the organised private sector.
The President also asked Wale Edun, Minister of Finance, to propose a framework for a new minimum wage. Prior to the directive, the minister branded the worker demands as “unaffordable.”
Furthermore, the 36 state governors stated that labour’s demands were unsustainable. However, on Friday, June 7, 2024, the two sides (labour and government) were unable to strike a deal.
The labour demand was reduced from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, while the government increased the initial ₦60,000 offer by ₦2,000 to ₦62,000.
Both parties filed reports with the President, who is anticipated to make a choice and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enact a new minimum wage bill, which the President will sign into law.
