News

Minimum wage: Labour rejects FG’s proposal

Published

5 years ago

June 15, 2019

The negotiation committee set up by the Federal Government to negotiate the consequential adjustment arising from the N 30 , 000 new minimum wage has rejected what the government is offering .

The committee , which was inaugurated on May 14 , has also failed to meet the four-week deadline to submit its report .
However , members met twice last week with the enlarged membership collapsed into one technical committee of six members each from both sides .

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo – Ita , who was appointed as chairman of the panel , stepped down for the chairman of the National Wages , Salaries and Income Commission to head the technical committee .

A principal officer of a labour union , who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity , said government ’ s position on the consequential adjustment had been rejected by labour representatives in the committee .

He said labour decided to be careful in reaching an agreement based on what happened when minimum wage was last increased and also to avoid being blackmailed by the FG .

He said , “ We are monitoring the negotiations between our representatives and government . There is likely to be some challenges which is normal . The government negotiating team is looking at what the government can pay conveniently , but labour is also looking at what will be good for workers to avoid a situation where workers found themselves when the minimum wage was last increased .

“ What happened then was that government came up with a block figure and out of poor negotiations because of insufficient time , a paltry sum was spread on workers ’ salaries, translating into about N 900 increase monthly . ”

The source said the Nigeria Labour Congress was not involved in the ongoing negotiations .