Organised labour, made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), and the Trade Union Congress(TUC), has refuted President Bola Tinubu’s assertion that an agreement had been reached on a new national minimum wage.
In his nationwide broadcast to mark Democracy Day, Tinubu asserted that the Federal Government and organised labour had come to an agreement on the much-discussed new minimum wage.
Tinubu disclosed that the new minimum wage accord will shortly be formalised through the submission of an executive bill to the National Assembly.
The president highlighted that, in response to workers union demands, his administration opted for democracy over dictatorship.
However, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, the acting president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, stated in a statement on Wednesday that at the time negotiations finished on Friday, June 7, 2024, the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage had not reached an agreement.
Instead, N250,000 from organised labour and N62,000 from the government and organised private sector, according to Adeyanju, were calculated and should have been sent to the president.
Anything to the contrary, according to the Labour leader, is not only fabricated but will not be tolerated by Labour.
The statement reads, “We reiterate that it will be extremely difficult for Nigerian workers to accept any national minimum wage figure that approximates a starvation wage.” We cannot be working and yet remain in abject poverty.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) attentively listened to the Democracy Day presidential address delivered by His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, especially concerning the ongoing National Minimum Wage negotiations.
“While the President may have accurately recounted parts of our democratic journey’s history, it is evident that he has been misinformed regarding the outcome of the wage negotiation process.
“To quote Mr. President, “As we continue to reform the economy, I shall always listen to the people and will never turn my back on you. 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.
“In the face of Labour’s call for a national strike, we did not seek to oppress or crack down on the workers as a dictatorial government would have done. We chose the path of cooperation over conflict.
“No one was arrested or threatened. Instead, the labour leadership was invited to break bread and negotiate towards a good-faith resolution.
“We appreciate the President’s commitment to those fine democratic ideals that allowed the work of the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Negotiation Committee to proceed unhindered despite some hiccups.
“However, we had expected Mr. President to have used this understanding as one of those who were in the vanguard of the struggle with us around the nation to rescue Nigeria from the hands of the military to harmonise the two figures submitted to him by the Tripartite Committee in favour of workers and he masses. It would have been a fitting Democracy Day gift.
“The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the President would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the federal government and the employers on the base figure for a national minimum wage nor on its other components.
“We are therefore surprised at the submission of Mr. President over a supposed agreement. We believe that he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC.
“There was none, and it is important that we let the President, Nigerians, and other national stakeholders understand this immediately to avoid a mix-up in the ongoing conversation around the national minimum wage. We have also not seen a copy of the document submitted to him and will not accept any doctored documents.
“The president’s advisers obviously did not tell him the truth that the leaders of the trade unions were intimidated and harassed. It is therefore important that Mr. President understand that we were threatened several times by his operatives, perhaps without his consent.
“Series of media Propaganda calculated to intimidate and harass us was and is still being waged against the trade unions by senior officials of this government.
“Fully armed soldiers surrounded us while we were in a negotiation with the government, and despite denials, recent statements by senior officials of the government reaffirmed our fears, contrary to the assurances by the government.
“However, we remain assured that the President’s democratic credentials will come to the fore in favour of Nigerian workers and the masses.”
