President Bola Tinubu has assured the Organised Labour that a an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers will soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
Tinubu made this known on Wednesday in his second Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024.
“In this spirit, we have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with Organised Labour on a new national minimum wage. We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less,” the President said.
He said in the face of Labour’s national strike on June 3, 2024, none of the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were arrested or threatened.
“Instead, the labour leadership was invited to break bread and negotiate toward a good-faith resolution,” he said, adding that “reasoned discussion and principled compromise are hallmarks of democracy”.
‘Reforms will fix hardship’
Tinubu also acknowledged the economic difficulties in the nation and empathised with Nigerians. He promised “necessary repairs required to fix the economy”.
“The reforms we have initiated are intended to create a stronger, better foundation for future growth. There is no doubt the reforms have occasioned hardship. Yet, they are necessary repairs required to fix the economy over the long run so that everyone has access to economic opportunity, fair pay and compensation for his endeavour and labour,” he said.
Long walk to new wage
Talks for a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers have been on for a while. The Minimum Wage Act of 2019, which made N30,000 the minimum wage, expired in April 2024. The Act should be reviewed every five years to meet up with contemporary economic demands of workers.
President Tinubu in January set up a Tripartite Committee to negotiate a new minimum wage for workers. The committee comprise the Organised Labour, representatives of federal and state governments as well as the Organised Private Sector.
However, the committee members failed to reach an agreement on a new realistic minimum wage for workers, forcing labour to declare an indefinite industrial action on Monday, June 3, 2024. Businesses were paralysed as labour shut down airports, hospitals, national grid, banks, National Assembly and state assemblies’ complexes.
The labour unions said the current minimum wage of N30,000 can no longer cater to the wellbeing of an average Nigerian worker, saying government should offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures, attendant effects of the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex windows of the current administration.
Labour “relaxed” its strike on June 4, 2024 following assurances from the President that he was committed to a wage above N60,000.
Both TUC and NLC leadership subsequently resumed talks with the representatives of the Federal Government, states, and the Organised Private Sector.
On Friday, June 7, 2024, labour and the government still failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped again its demand from N494,000 to N250,000, the government added N2,000 to its initial N60,000 and offered workers N62,000.
Both sides submitted their reports to the President who is expected to make a decision and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to pass a new minimum wage bill to be signed into law by the President.
