The one-week grace period granted to the Federal Government on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, will end at midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, according to Organised Labour.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said that their organs would meet tomorrow (Tuesday) to decide whether to resume the nationwide industrial action that was eased last week if the Federal Government and National Assembly did not respond to worker demands.
This was said by NLC Assistant General Secretary Chris Onyeka on Monday's episode of The Morning Brief on Channels Television. "The call is currently with the Federal Government and the National Assembly," stated the NLC official.
We are not calling for it. We want the administration to review and submit an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and we want the National Assembly to consider our demands and the different aspects of the law before creating a National Minimum Act that satisfies them.
"We have offered the Federal Government one week to look at the concerns, and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday), if that does not meet our requirement. If the government does not provide a concrete response by tomorrow, the Organized Labor organs will convene to choose the next course of action."
He responded, "It was clear what we said," when asked what Labour's position would be if the government insisted on ₦62,000 instead."
"We declared that a nationwide, indefinite strike would be eased. It's as if you're pausing it. Therefore, if anything is put on hold and the trade union institutions that oversee us determine that it should be lifted, it signifies a return to the previous state of affairs."
"We can never accept starvation wage"
He stated that Labour will not accept a minimum salary of ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 for Nigerian workers, referring to it as a "starvation wage.
At the most recent meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage on Friday, he emphasized that the living wage for an ordinary Nigerian worker should be ₦250,000, which is labor's most recent demand.
According to him, labor will not accept the most recent ₦62,000 offer from the government or the ₦100,000 suggestion made by certain people and economists.
Onyeka declared, "We have never given thought to taking ₦62,000 or any other wage that we know is insufficient to send Nigerian workers home. We're not going to bargain for a living salary."
"We had never considered spending ₦100,000, much less ₦62,000. We deemed it to be sufficient accommodation for the government and other relevant stakeholders in this specific scenario, therefore we remain at ₦250,000. Our motivations are not limited to frivolities; they also take into account the reality of the market and the products we often purchase, such as garri, yam, and bags of rice."
Protracted Deadlock
On Monday, June 3, 2024, Labour called an indefinite strike action following weeks of fruitless negotiations over a new national minimum wage for workers. The National Assembly, state assemblies' complexes, banks, hospitals, airports, and the national grid were all closed by labor, paralyzing business.
The labor unions claimed that the current ₦30,000 minimum wage was insufficient to support the well-being of the typical Nigerian worker and that the government should provide workers with a more competitive wage in light of the country's current inflationary pressures, the consequences of the administration's twin policies of eliminating gasoline subsidies, and the unification of its forex windows.
The labor unions also bemoaned the fact that certain states are not paying the existing salary award, which ran out in April 2024—five years after former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum Salary Act of 2019.
Every five years, the Act should be reviewed to ensure it still meets the needs of modern workers in terms of the economy. President Bola Tinubu established a tripartite committee in January 2024 to negotiate a new national minimum wage. Labour first proposed a new minimum wage of ₦615,000 at the beginning of the negotiations, but they then saw fit to lower their demand to ₦497,000 and then ₦494,000.
Additionally, at first, the government and the Organized Private Sector offered ₦48,000, ₦54,000, ₦57,000, and eventually ₦60,000; however, Labour rejected all four proposals, which led to the strike.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, stated that the President was committed to a wage above ₦60,000 and that the government side of the tripartite committee would meet with labor for one week to agree on a wage last Monday, June 3, 2024, in the heat of the impasse and the attendant consequences of the strike.
Convinced, labor "relaxed" its work stoppage on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, approximately twenty-four hours following the walkout. Following that, the heads of the TUC and NLC met again with delegates from the federal government, the states, and the organized private sector.
The President additionally instructed Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance, to submit a model for a new minimum wage. The minister had called the labor demands "unaffordable" before the directive. The 36 state governors stated that labor's demands could not be met.
But on Friday, June 7, 2024, the administration and labor were unable to come to a consensus. While labor's demand fell once more, from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government promised workers ₦62,000 and added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000
The President received the reports from both parties and is likely to decide and send an executive bill to the National Assembly for approval of a new minimum wage bill that the President would sign into law.
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