The Organised Labour still insists that the N250,000 benchmark remains the desired minimum wage for workers in Nigeria, the President, Trade Union Congress, TUC, Festus Osifo, stated on Tuesday.
Osifo also stated that the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) were meeting with officials of the Federal Government to reach an agreement on the minimum wage.
He revealed this at the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Women Commission maiden annual convention in Abuja, with the theme, ‘The Dynamic Woman: Navigating Challenges in a Constantly Evolving World.’
The President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government and organised private sector have agreed on N62,000 as the new minimum wage, but labour is insisting on N250,000.
Speaking at the event, the TUC boss said negotiations on the new minimum wage have not been abandoned; rather, labour and the government are fine-tuning the matter.
“The minimum wage negotiations cannot be dead. The 2019 minimum wage (which has expired) took about two years to see the light of day. We started the negotiations in 2017.
“We promised you when we started in January (this year) that we would ensure this one was fast-tracked for us not to be in the conundrum that we were in in 2019, which took two years,” the TUC president stated.
He emphasised that the minimum wage was receiving attention, adding that the president wanted further consultations before submitting it to the National Assembly.
“So where we are today, we submitted the divergent position in June. When we did that, you know clearly that Mr. President came out to say that he wanted to consult across the board, which is the governors, local government chairmen, organised private sector, and labour, so we are doing some level of reach-out and conversations.
“So that what will be submitted to the National Assembly will actually be a minimum wage that will cater for the poorest of the poor, so for the fact that in the media we are not shouting, we are doing some level of internal work so that this bill will be submitted in earnest soon. We still insist on the N250,000 benchmark as the ideal minimum wage,” Osifo stated.
