By Stanley Onyeka, Lagos and Tochukwu Bliss, Abuja
Following hours of negotiations in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the Federal Government and Organised Labour yesterday reached an accord on the lingering new national minimum wage crisis.
Parties agreed that the new minimum wage would exceed N60,000 per month while negotiations continue.
The resolution was signed by Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, for the Federal Government of Nigeria, while President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero; and President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, for the Organised Labour.
In a statement, the parties said: “After exhaustive deliberation and engagement by both parties, the following resolutions were reached:
- The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria is committed to a National Minimum Wage that is higher than N60,000;
- Arising from the above, the Tripartite Committee is to meet every day for the next one week with a view to arriving at an agreeable National Minimum Wage;
- Labour in deference to the high esteem of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria’s commitment in (ii) above undertakes to convene a meeting of its organs immediately to consider this commitment; and
- No worker would be victimized as a result of the industrial action.
The resolutions are: “Further to the negotiation by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage (NMW) and subsequent withdrawal of Labour from negotiation, the Leadership of the National Assembly intervened on 2nd June, 2024.
“The Organised Labour declared nationwide strike on Monday, 3rd June, 2024 to drive home its demands.
“The Federal Government, in the National interest, convened a meeting with Labour held in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, on Monday 3rd June, with a view to ending the strike action.”
…the Tripartite Committee is to meet every day for the next one week with a view to arriving at an agreeable National Minimum Wage.
Government appeal
Prior to the meeting, the Information Minister in a letter titled: “Appeal to Organised Labour by the Federal Government,” had written “a heartfelt and deeply considered appeal to the Labour Unions.”
Mr Idris had urged the unions “to continue along the path of negotiations with the Federal and State Governments, under the auspices of the Tripartite Committee that has been established to fashion out a new, realistic minimum wage for the Nigerian people.”
He noted that the federal government is “desirous of a peaceful outcome… and has “a responsibility to strike a measured and realistic balance, in this effort to arrive at a new minimum wage for Nigerians.”
The appeal also pointed to some fundamental facts:
“The minimum wage is not only for public sector workers. It will be binding on the private sector as well. This reality must be factored into the negotiations.
“Labour’s current proposal of N494,000 is an increase of 1,547 percent on the existing wage, and translates into an annual wage bill of N9.5 trillion for the Federal Government of Nigeria alone.
“This is apart from its cost implications for subnational governments and private sector employees. Such a wage bill would cripple the Nigerian economy, by leading to massive job losses especially in the private sector.
“The National Consumer Credit Scheme and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) are additional significant demonstrations of a determination to bring relief to the people of Nigeria.”
The Minister further argued that “the relief that Nigerians are expecting, and that they fully deserve, will not come only in the form of increased wages.
“It will also come as efforts to reduce the cost of living, and to ensure that more money stays in the pockets of Nigerians.”
Labour counter
But in a counter, the NLC and its TUC counterpart accused the President Bola Tinubu’s government of offering Nigerian workers a “slave wage amidst excruciating hardship.”
This is even as the government has wasted billions of naira on Presidential Villa renovation, air fleets, and the unconstitutional office of first lady.
In a joint statement signed by NLC and TUC leaders, Mr Ajaero and Mr. Osifo, respectively, noted that workers have had to grapple with “galloping inflation marked by unprecedented food inflation of 40%, and general inflation of 33%,” with workers “currently living just on the edge.”
The statement reads further: “In addition to the historicity of slave wages marked by the continued downturn in the national economy, massive devaluation of the naira, removal of government subsidies, increase in taxation, astronomical hike of the tariff of critical utilities and the combo siege of collapsed public infrastructure and insecurity all over the country, life has become a Hobbesian reality in Nigeria – short, nasty and brutish.
“While the Federal Government offers a very paltry sum which in real inflation and naira value is far below the current national minimum wage, in one word – backward increase of the national minimum wage government has shown a huge appetite for profligacy… while “workers wage remain stagnant amidst buffeting increases in the cost of living.”
To underscore their point, the unions said: “On November 2, 2023, the National Assembly approved the N2.18 trillion 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Bill forwarded to it by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The supplementary bill turned out to be a competition for luxury and ostentatious items including a N5 billion yacht, the renovation of the President’s and Vice-President’s residences, billed to gulp N13.5 billion.
“The ‘Office of the First Lady,’ alien to the constitution, would gulp N1.5 billion. N2.9 billion was budgeted for Presidential Villa SUVs, and another N2.9 billion to replace ‘operational vehicles’, while the Presidential Air Fleet receives N12.5 billion.”
NLC and its affiliate unions yesterday, embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike over the federal government’s failure to meet their demands on minimum wage increment a year after negotiations commenced.
Labour is demanding N494,000 minimum wage based on current economic realities, while the federal government is offering to pay N60,000.
Based on the resolutions, the unions are expected to meet to decide whether or not to suspend the indefinite strike.
