The organised labour has vowed to reject any little addition to N60,000 earlier proposed by the federal government as new minimum wage.
The labour’s leadership and the federal government’s team had, on Monday, reached an agreement on a new minimum wage that would be “above N60,000.”
But speaking last night on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, said the organised labour was not fixated on N494,000, but on a substantial amount.
When asked to mention the specific amount they would settle for, Osifo said the tripartite committee must show seriousness and offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures.
“No, we also told them that it is not that we would get to the table and you start adding N1, N2, N3,000 as you were doing and we got some good guarantees here and there that they would do something good,” he said.
He said the new minimum wage must be equal in purchasing power to the value of N30,000 in 2019 and N18,000 in 2014.
The organised labour had on Monday embarked on an indefinite strike over the government’s refusal to pay more than N60,000 as new minimum wage.
But the strike was “relaxed” yesterday for one week following the extraordinary National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC.
Why we relaxed strike for 1 week – NLC president
The president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, while reading the communique issued after the NEC meeting to journalists Tuesday, said the strike was relaxed for one week from today to allow the federal government commit to a concrete and acceptable national minimum wage, take definitive steps to reverse the electricity tariff hike back to N66/kwh and abolish the discriminatory classification of electricity consumers into bands.
He said labour leadership was mandated to continue to maintain open channels of communication with the government to negotiate and secure favourable outcomes for Nigerian workers and people.
He directed all affiliate unions and state councils “to relax the indefinite nationwide strike and return to their respective workplaces immediately.”
Ajaero said the decision to relax the strike was taken after President Tinubu’s commitment to raising the new minimum wage above N60,000.
Speaking about the agreement reached with the government on Monday, Ajaero said, “On electricity tariff hike and classification: The NEC-in-Session is deeply disappointed by government’s silence and lack of concrete action regarding the reversal of the electricity tariff hike and the abolition of the apartheid classification of electricity consumers into bands.
“The NEC reaffirms that these issues are critical to alleviating the financial burden on Nigerian workers and the general populace. The electricity tariff hike and discriminatory band classification remain unacceptable and must be addressed alongside the wage increase.”(Daily Trust)
