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The Organised Labour, consisting of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), has said it agreed to 70 thousand naira new minimum wage proposal from President Bola Tinubu to prevent heaping further hardship on Nigerians.
This is according to NLC President, Joe Ajaero and his counterpart in the TUC, Festus Osifo, who spoke after a meeting with Tinubu at the State House in Abuja on Thursday, July 18, 2024.
At the meeting, the organised labour agreed to drop its 250 thousand naira minimum wage demand and accepted the President's offer of 70 thousand naira.
According to Ajaero, labour accepted the new proposal because there were other favourable terms attached to it.
Labour explains reasons for accepting N70,000
“What has been announced in terms of the amount of N70,000 happened to be where we are now. But the cool thing about it is that we will not wait for another five years to come on review.
“Rather than settling on a figure that we wait for five years, it’s like we’ll have to now negotiate even two times within five years.
“That is one of the reasons why we decided to reach where we are today. Because of the proviso that we can review in the next three years.
“The other one, we came with other issues in the basket, like the issue of SSANU, NASU and others, especially with the affront by the Commissioner of Police FCT, we brought it to Mr President, and talk on the need for that matter to be addressed. And magnanimously, he (Tinubu) asked the agencies concerned to work out the modalities for the payment of those workers in the universities,” the NLC president said.
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For his part, Osifo said “The President (Tinubu) made a pronouncement or announcement of N70,000. By next week, he should put the finishing touches to the bill and the transmission to the National Assembly.
“But why this became a catch is because we, from Organised Labour, have been pushing that the issue of five years review is a long time, that a lot of economic indices may have changed because we are in an era where things are moving very fast in terms of both macro and micro economic policies.
“But there is a caveat that this is going to be done every three years, the next review should be in three years. And after that pronouncement, we from labour received what the President has promised,”
Ajaero says labour accepts offer to save Nigerians from hardship
Meanwhile, while speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today on Thursday night, the NLC President said labour decided to make a big sacrifice by dropping its 250 thousand naira demand.
He said the President had offered to meet its 250 thousand demand but with a proviso that he's allowed to increase the pump price of petrol products.
Ajaero noted that accepting such an offer would have further compounded the misery Nigerians are facing due to the economic hardship in the country.