The federal government has offered N62,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers after the rejection of its proposed N60,000 by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NlC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State said this while addressing journalists at the end of the tripartite committee negotiation meeting on Friday in Abuja.
However, the labour unions reduced their demand to N250,000 after the federal government and the private sector viewed its proposed N495,000 as unrealistic.
“In the wisdom of the committee, it has put together a recommendation that will be forwarded to Mr President for further action,” said Mr Uzodimma, who is also the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
He added, “The organised private sector and the federal government have agreed on N62,000 while the organised labour is asking for N250,000.”
Also, Festus Osifo, TUC’s president, noted that the organised private sector and the federal government had recommended N62,000 as the minimum wage.
“But for us, we felt that with the current economic hardship and the difficulty in the land, the sum of N250,000 should be what will be okay for the minimum wage.
“We will sign a report and forward this position to Mr President. This committee is to make recommendations to him.
“We will keep pushing to ensure that we have a wage that stands the test of time in Nigeria,” he said.
This comes a few days after organised labour suspended the nationwide strike for five days to allow for continuous negotiations with the federal government on the new minimum wage.
The NLC and TUC had rejected the current administration’s proposal of N60,000. They demanded N495,000, citing the hardship that trailed President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies that saw prices of food and commodities skyrocket by per cent cent.
While the government, organised private sector, NLC, and TUC had agreed that the current minimum wage of N30,000 was no longer sustainable due to the present economic reality, agreeing on a figure for the new minimum wage had long proved difficult.
The organised labour began a nationwide strike on June 3, pausing economic activities as banks, airports, public schools, and courts were shut. The strike was soon suspended for five days and was expected to continue on Monday, June 10.
Meanwhile, during the negotiations for the new minimum wage, state governors rejected the initially proposed N60,000, saying it was “unattainable” and “cannot fly.”
