The Federal Government has made a new proposal to increase the minimum wage to N54,000, following the resumption of negotiations with the Tripartite Committee on the New Minimum Wage.
This came after the Organised Labour temporarily withdrew from the talks last week.
Although the government’s initial offer was N48,000, it has now increased the proposed minimum wage by N6,000.
However, a source close to the negotiations revealed to Channels TV that the Organised Labour has rejected this new proposal, deeming it significantly lower than their demand of N615,000, which is jointly supported by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
According to the source, the meeting which held behind closed doors at the Nicon luxury hotel in Abuja on Tuesday has been adjourned to Wednesday, May 22 to continue with negotiations.
Meanwhile, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, has described the new proposed wage by the federal government as “unsubstantial”.
“It is still not substantial compared to what we need to make a family moving,” the labour leader said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday night.
“There is nothing on the table…We may be reconvening tomorrow (Wednesday) in the afternoon to continue negotiations.”
He said, “The economy of the workers is totally destroyed. In fact, the workers doesn’t have any economy. I think there are two economies in the country; the economy of the bourgeoisie and the economy of the workers. I think we have to harmonise this so that we can have a meeting point.”
