Organized Labour has united on the minimum wage demand from the Tinubu Government.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has revealed that organized labour has agreed on ₦615,000 as the new minimum wage to demand from the federal government for Nigerian workers.
The TUC President, Festus Osifo, who made the revelation while speaking to newsmen on Friday in Abuja, said the amount is in agreement with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Osifo said the initial demand of ₦447,000 was discarded after the harmonization with the NLC.
He, however, expressed doubt that the federal government would announce a new minimum wage on May 1 because, according to him, negotiations are still ongoing with the Tripartite Committee on a new minimum wage.
”The negotiations by the Tripartite Committee are still ongoing. If you remember, the TUC earlier submitted N447, 000 as the new minimum wage, but we have harmonised our figure with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
“It is now N615,000. Regarding the when for the new minimum wage, the committee is still working.
“So, certainly, May 1 will not work for the pronouncement of the new minimum wage. Except if the Federal Government wants to pay the minimum wage of N500,000 to workers,” he said.
Osifo added that the government might not agree to the ₦615,000 demanded by organised labour, but that is their own position, and negotiations would take off from that point.
”The government also has its markup, and so conversations and negotiations will start and end somewhere.
”If you look at the N615. 000, you will think that the amount is right, but at about the time we did that computation, a dollar was about N1,700.
”I am hopeful that the committee will meet after May 1,” he said.
Meanwhile, NewsOnline Nigeria reported that the federal government has set up a 37-member tripartite committee on minimum wage to discuss, negotiate and come up with a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
