By Cross Udo, Abuja
Organised Labour has once again rejected the Federal Government’s offer of N60,000 as the new national minimum wage.
Recall that at the last meeting, the Federal Government and the private sector had offered N57,000, while the Organised Labour reduced its demand from the initial N615,000 to N497,000.
At the resumed meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, the Federal Government and the organised private sector added N3,000 to their initial offer of N57,000, thereby increasing it to N60,000, while the labour also followed the footsteps of the two parties to reduce its demand by N3,000, making it N494,000.
The organised labour had given the government up till May 31, to conclude every negotiation to avoid industrial disharmony.
Annoyed with the government’s offer, the organised labour stormed out of the meeting which may likely be the last before the end of the month.
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A source privy at the meeting said that labour walked out after the Federal Government offer as was announced by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
The source said, “We anticipated what they are doing, we anticipated that they will come up with another gimmick because we have been telling them, break what you are giving as an award, break it down the way we broke out own down.
“Housing, food transportation, health, education, and others but they have refused consistently because if they break it down, are they going to now say food is N100? For you to put everything under N57,000 or N60,000 as it’s now per month, you cannot put food per day at N200, if you put food per day at N200, that will be N6,000 multiplied by four, that should be N24,000, so what is left now is N36,000.
“You cannot say transport is N50 because once they commit themselves to it, they are now telling Nigerian workers that what we are giving you for transport is N50 in a day, what we are giving you for housing is so and so and that might put them in a very tight corner so they can’t break it down.
“When we got to the meeting today, they increased from N57,000 to N60,000, then the Organised Private Sector aligned with them. We didn’t want them to adjourn because we are heading for strike from the 1st of next month (June) and I don’t think they can reconvene before that time. That’s where we are.”
