The National Assembly (NASS) and President Bola Tinubu will decide on the next course of action, according to Organised Labour Weekend, after last Friday’s deadlocked talks on a new national minimum wage (NNMW).
This is even though financial analysts and industry professionals have pointed out that the economy is recovering slowly and that the minimum wage movement and the reinstatement of fuel subsidies would make things more difficult. They also believe that an early rebound is unlikely.
Recall that on Friday, June 8, the tripartite committee on NNMW concluded its deliberations without reaching a consensus because of stark differences in offers between organised labour (the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC) and employers (the government and OPS).
The Federal Government negotiation team defied expectations by adding N2,000 to its first offer of N60,000, resulting in a standoff that compelled labour unions to call a statewide strike.
Due to the impasse, the committee decided to provide President Bola Tinubu with both the N250,000 that organised labour is now demanding and the N62,000 offer made by the Federal Government team, which has the support of the OPS.
The next move that organised labour will take will be decided by President Tinubu and the National Assembly, a member of labour’s negotiation team told Vanguard.
According to him:
“At this point, we are looking up to the President and the National Assembly to right the wrong done by the government negotiators and their OPS counterpart. It was a high level conspiracy among the federal government negotiators, the state governors and the OPS.
“Members of OPS hid under the bogus name of small and medium enterprises, SMEs, to claim they cannot pay reasonable wages.
“The OPS had willing tools in state governors who, from the onset, did not attend most of the meetings and never wanted to improve the wages of their employees, but were clandestinely meeting with OPS to scuttle any chance of a reasonable wage.
“For the Federal Government side, members of the team, besides ensuring that Mr President did not know the true situation of things, members did everything, including threats, to ensure we did not move forward.
“In fact, one senior government official singled out the NLC president for threats, blaming him for what he termed organized labour’s tough stance. Even when the TUC president wanted to defend the NLC’s president, he was not allowed to speak.
“Well, we have done our best. Since it was Mr President that set up the committee in the first place, we have returned the responsibility of doing the right thing to him. Don’t forget Mr President has always promised Nigerian workers a living wage. He now has all the opportunities to fulfill his promise to the Nigerian workers.
“However, in case Mr President fails to do the right thing, members of the National Assembly who are representatives of people, should rightly take up the responsibility of making Nigerian workers earn a living wage.
“We believe if the executive arm pretends not to be aware of the sufferings and pains Nigerian workers and masses are going through, we expect our representatives in the National Assembly to appreciate our pains.
‘’The issue will come to them (National Assembly members) as an executive bill. From there, they should take it up and make the nation’s workforce happier.
“What Mr President and the National Assembly do will determine our next line of action. After that, we can hold our organs’ meetings to decide our responses. For now, we have to wait. That is all I can say.”
Recall that the Federal Government’s negotiation team increased their offer by N2,000 at Friday’s meeting, marking a two-day delay, to N62,000, while organised labour lowered its demand to N250,000 from N494,000.
Additionally, it was learned that the government’s N62,000 offer had the support of the Organised Private Sector (OPS).
The Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage, or NNMW, has adjourned in response to the dispute.
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cc: Vanguard Ng
