The organized labour has blatantly rejected the N62,000 proposed minimum wage and has announced their intentions to embark on another indefinite strike should the Federal Government and the National Assembly refuse to work on the minimum wage.
The tripartite committee saddled with the responsibility of negotiating a minimum wage that will both be favourable to the Unions and the Federal government presented their last recommendation by suggesting N62,000 as the National minimum wage.
However, the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress have lowered their asking price to N250,000 which was agreed before they suspended the infinite strike embarked on Monday, June 3.
The unions have however reminded the federal government that their five days grace will elapse on Tuesday and will thereby force them into another plan for a next line of action as the welfare of an average Nigerian worker remains their priority.
Chris Onyeka, an Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday said “Our position is very clear”.
He insisted that labour won’t accept the latest government’s offer of ₦62,000 and the ₦100,000 proposal by some individuals 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 the realities of the market place; realities of things we buy every day: bags of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”
On the Tuesday deadline labour gave to the Federal government, after they decided to relax the indefinite strike on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, he said should the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on the demands of workers by tomorrow (Tuesday), the organs of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action relaxed last week.
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 fact 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.”
When asked 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 are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and that 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.”
Onyeka said the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by the midnight of Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
