The Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage meeting ended last night without any agreement between the Organised Labour and the Federal Government.
The Organised Labour at the meeting reduced its demand from the initial N615,000 to N500,000 and later N497,000.
The Deputy President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, ThisNigeria gathered, earlier confirmed a N500, 000 demand yesterday.
According to him, the labour delegation to the tripartite meeting was compelled to reduce its demand to see that the Federal Government met up with the demand.
Ndubuaku, however, expressed worries that despite shifting grounds, the government failed to cooperate with the negotiation process.
“Yes, it is true we have reduced it to N500,000. But we are still not making progress at the moment,” he said.
He also noted that the government’s stance demonstrated a lack of concern for the masses despite the acute hardship they are facing due to inflation triggered by its obnoxious economic policies.
However, another source at the meeting said that the government team was initially adamant about N54,000, complaining of the non-availability of funds and the inability of the private sector to pay.
But the private sector made an additional N3,000 taking up its offer to N57,000 from the initial N54,000.
According to the source, “Government has agreed that NLC is using evidence-based presentation. But they argue that eight states are not paying or not fully implementing the 2019 minimum wage.”
The source further said, “Government is talking of non-availability of funds. They are also talking about the inability of the private sector to pay.”
On Labour shifting of ground by the Organised Labour, the source said, “Labour has been requested to shift in response to the Government. They complied and came down to N500,000.
He said that the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma was present at the meeting.
“The Imo State Governor has stepped in. He is not a member of the committee but it is good that there is at least a governor, as the six governors in the committee have been regularly absent.”
Speaking at the end of the meeting, a source privy to what transpired inside said,
“The government is insisting on N57,000 which is like wage reduction, how can you go and negotiate wage reduction because there’s nobody that is earning N57,000 now?
“We told them straight away that we didn’t accept the N57,000 offer.”
He further said, “They pleaded with labour to accept their offer, we told them that there was nothing to plead about. We told them to break down the N57,000 offer so that we will know how much they are allocating to transport, how much to accommodation, and how much they are allocating to health so that we know and not lump everything but didn’t do that.”
