The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has distanced themselves from any agreement with the federal government on the new minimum wage.
President Tinubu during his Democracy Day speech said an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers will soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
However, the tripartite committee which was set up to negotiate and finalise on a favourable new minimum wage for the country had sent in its report to the federal government which is still miles apart from the demands of the labour unions.
The committee proposed a N62,000 minimum wage in their report to the federal government while labour is insisting on N250,000 for workers in the country.
Consequent upon this, the NLC has faulted the remark of Mr President, insisting it won’t back down on its demand.
“The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the President would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the federal government and the employers on the base figure for a National Minimum Wage nor on its other components,” the NLC said in a statement by Adewale Adeyanju standing in for Joe Ajaero who is in Geneva, Switzerland, for the ILO Conference.
“Our demand still remains N250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand Naira) only and we have not been given any compelling reasons to change this position which we consider a great concession by Nigerian workers during the tripartite negotiation process.”
“We are therefore surprised at the submission of Mr. President over a supposed agreement. We believe that he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC,” he said.
“There was none and it is important that we let the President, Nigerians, and other national stakeholders understand this immediately to avoid a mix-up in the ongoing conversation around the national minimum wage. We have also not seen a copy of the document submitted to him and will not accept any doctored document.”
The NLC maintained its stance on not accepting “any national minimum wage figure that approximates to a starvation wage”.
“We cannot be working and yet remain in abject poverty. We seek justice, equity, and fairness for all Nigerians and this we hope would also drive the actions of Mr. President who promised a Living Wage to Nigerian workers. This is an opportunity to show that he listens to Nigerians as he promised!” NLC’s statement read.
