Breaking: NLC Rejects FG’s New ₦60,000 Minimum Wage Offer, Suggest ₦494,000 As New Minimum Wage Instead

The organised labour, on Tuesday, rejected the government’s latest offer, the fourth proposal in about two weeks since negotiation talks resumed.

This time, the Organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), rejected the offer of the Federal Government to pay ₦60,000 as new minimum wage for workers.

The Organised Labour also shifted ground from its ₦497,000 stance last week to ₦494,000.
A prominent member of the Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers told Channels Television labour correspondent that the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector (OPS) side of the talks proposed a ₦60,000 monthly minimum wage on Tuesday (today) as against the ₦57,000 they proposed last week when the committee last met.

The government and the OPS had initially proposed ₦48,000 and ₦54,000 last week, which were also rejected by the organised labour.

Deadlocked

The organised labour had also presented ₦615,000 as the new minimum wage but saw reasons to drop their demand to ₦497,000 last week and then to ₦494,000 on Tuesday (today).

Today’s meeting was, however, deadlocked as talks ended without an agreement on what to pay as a new minimum wage.

The Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers is yet to agree on a new minimum wage just about three days before the May 31 deadline the labour unions gave to the government to conclude the negotiations.

The labour unions said the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 can no longer cater to the wellbeing of an average Nigerian worker, lamenting that not all governors are paying the current wage award which expired in April 2024, five years after the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari. The Act should be reviewed every five years to meet up with contemporary economic demands of workers.

Just In: Labour Rejects FG’s Proposed N48,000 Minimum Wage

 

The organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress has walked out of the ongoing minimum wage negotiations after the government and the Organised Private Sector made what the unionists described as “ridiculous offers” of N48,000 and N54,000, respectively.

According to a source who is a leader of the TUC in the meeting, while the government did not provide any data to back up its proposal, unlike Organised Labour, OPS, on the other hand, said none of its members pays less than N78,000.

The TUC source said, “Labour presented first and we stood on our N615,000 proposal after which the OPS presented N54,000. Later the government came and proposed N48,000. There was no iota of seriousness. There was no data to back it up and that was the moment we walked out. When they are ready to be serious, they will call us.”