FG Offers 62,000 as bench for Minimum Wage
After several hours of negotiation yesterday, the federal administration and organised labour were unable to achieve an agreement on the new national minimum wage.
While federal government representatives boosted their offer from N60,000 to N62,000, organized labour reduced their demand from N494,000 to N250,000.
The tripartite committee, which was established to synchronize decisions in order to arrive at a consensus amount, concluded that an upward review of the current national minimum wage is necessary because
the benefits outweigh the drawbacks after critically examining the minimum wage through all relevant lenses, applying social, economic, and political factors,
as well as pertinent ILO conventions and international best practices.
Given this, the committee urged President Bola Tinubu to take notice of the fact that organized labor insisted on N250,000 per month,
and that it adopted the motion recommending N62,000 per month as the new national minimum wage, after taking all other considerations into account.
Therefore, it suggested N250,000.00 per month—offered by organized labor—as the new national minimum wage for consideration,
and N62,000.00 per month—as agreed upon by the government and the Organized Private Sector (OPS) with policy incentives and other conditions imposed by states and the OPS.
After the tripartite committee meeting, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma addressed the media, stating that the committee would provide President Bola Tinubu the proposal for the next course of action.
Comrade Festus is the president of the Trade Union Congress of the United States.
The new development in the negotiations started when President Bola Tinubu gave Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordination of the Economy,
instructions earlier in the week to develop a new minimum wage and its associated costs. The labor leaders were shown the template for this proposal yesterday.
Negotiations on the 2024 national minimum wage began with labour insisting on a new workers’ salary that reflected the present rising cost of living.
The federal government initially suggested a minimum salary of N48,000 against labour’s demand of N615,000, then N54,000 against N497,000, before eventually shifting to N60,000, although all fell short of labour’s demand.
Despite the unions’ firm stance, the labor leaders walked out of the negotiations because all of the government’s proposals did not meet their expectations.
According to insiders, governors argue that paying a large portion of their resources to workers would leave them with nothing to work with.
For instance, an opposition governor from the South expressed concern about taking such large amounts to pay less than 200,000 civil servants in the state, who make up less than 5% of the population.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has warned that adopting the planned N60,000 monthly minimum wage could bankrupt many states, limiting their ability to fund important development projects and basic services.
According to a news release issued yesterday by the forum’s acting head of media and public relations, Hajiya Halimah Salihu Ahmed, governors around the country support labor unions advocating for increased salaries.
However, the statement warned that the N60,000 minimum wage was just untenable given the financial reality of most states.
According to the NGF, paying N60,000 minimum wage would exhaust the entire federal allocation received by many states just on personnel costs,
leaving zero funds for investments in infrastructure, healthcare, education and other priorities.
