The Nigerian Government has proposed a revised national minimum wage of N62,000. Also, the labour unions have scaled their initial demand from N494,000 to N250,000.
According to reports, this step was taken after Finance Minister Wale Edun presented President Bola Tinubu with his financial analysis on the minimum wage.
The Punch Newspaper reported that a source representing the workers’ negotiation team said: “Dissatisfied, they dragged it out and then came up with 62k that the private sector threw its weight behind. We have brought ours down to 250k which is really heart breaking.”
It was further reported that President Tinubu had directed Edun to state within a period of two days how much money would be required for implementation of a new minimum wage.
This decision was given at a meeting where George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of Nigeria-led adminstration’s team in charge of negotiations with labor unions at Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Although Minister Edun has made his submission to the president about this proposal; however no one knows what he said regarding it as yet.
It’s worth noting that the Labour coalition, comprising of Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, declared a nationwide strike on Monday to demand for an increase in minimum wage as well as a reversal of the new hike in electricity tariff.
As such, the strike was put on hold until Tuesday after which it would be resumed if no agreement is reached by then with regard to the proposal for a new minimum salary within one week.
The labor unions might not agree to the government’s latest offer for wages.
Earlier that day, Nigerian Governors’ Forum had said that maintaining more than N60 000 as minimum pay would not be feasible.
Follow Us
