President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured the organized labour that his administration shall soon send an executive bill to National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon on minimum wage as part of the law for the next five years or less.
Tinubu who disclosed this while addressing the nation in commemoration of Democracy Day, June 12, Wednesday said in the spirit of democracy, his government have negotiated in good faith and with open arms to labour on a new national minimum wage.
Recalled that the last meeting, the Federal Government negotiating team raised its offer by N2,000 bringing total minimum wage offer to N62,000 while the Organised Labour reduced its demand to N250,000 from N494,000.
Nationwide strike commenced last week Monday and relaxed, after called to protest the failure of the Federal Government to approve new minimum wage by May 31 as well as its failure to reverse the hike in electricity tariff.
The members of the organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress had on Tuesday last week suspended the strike for five days that lapsed this week Tuesday but the organized labour await the President’s decision on this matter.
Speaking further, President Tinubu said despite the face of labour’s call for a national strike, his administration did not seek to oppress or crack down on the workers as a dictatorial government would have done but chose the path of cooperation over conflict.
According to him, “No one was arrested or threatened. Instead, the labour leadership was invited to break bread and negotiate toward a good-faith resolution.
“Reasoned discussion and principled compromise are hallmarks of democracy. These themes shall continue to animate my policies and interaction with the constituent parts of our political economy”, the President added.
The labour had initially demanded a ₦615,000 minimum wage but reduced it twice now at ₦494,000, while the Federal Government and the organised private sector had initially proposed ₦48,000 and ₦54,000, now at N60,000 which were also rejected by the workers’ union.
It was reported that the labour said that the new proposal of the government does not tally with the nation’s economic realities with Nigeria’s inflation rate of 33.69% as of April 2024 based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The last meeting held with the Federal government ended in a deadlock, following Labour’s rejection of the new N62,000 minimum wage offer by the government.
This will be the fifth proposal the organized labour have rejected in two months since the discussion on minimum wage began, Labour is currently demanding N250,000 as minimum wage.
