Labour rejects new N54,000 offer

Minimum wage: Labour rejects new N54,000 offer; meeting is adjourned

During the national minimum wage negotiations that resumed on Tuesday, organized labor once more rejected the Federal Government’s most recent offer, which called for a minimum pay of N54,000.

As a result of the impasse, which prevented the government and labor leaders from coming to an agreement, the meeting was rescheduled for Wednesday.

This was the third time that government authorities, members of the Trade Union Congress, and officials from the Nigeria Labour Congress had failed to reach an agreement on the country’s minimum wage.

Following an offer from the Federal Government to pay N48,000, labor leaders last week left a meeting organized by the tripartite committee on minimum wage discussion.

In response to labor’s proposed N615,000, the Organized Private Sector presented a first offer of N54,000.

Joe Ajaero, the National President of the NLC, argued that the N615,000 minimum wage was necessary because it was determined by taking into account the demands of the average Nigerian family of six as

well as the current economic climate.

He claimed that the government had damaged the negotiation’s credibility by not offering any verified data to back up its offer.

Alhaji Bukar Goni, the chairman of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, told the gathering that the government had decided to increase the N48,000 it had previously suggested in an

effort to get labor back to the negotiating table.

The government did, however, offer N54,000 at the meeting on Tuesday, but labor pressed for its demand of a living wage of N615,000.

Knowing about the negotiations, labor leaders claimed the Federal Government upped its offer from N48,000 to N54,000.

Because they were not allowed to provide the media access to the specifics of the negotiations, the sources declined to be quoted.

Offer of N54,000.

“Well, during the meeting, the government increased its offer from N48,000 to N54,000.” stated one of the officials. But labor turned to that offer, so the meeting was postponed until this Wednesday.

“They didn’t show any seriousness at all,” another person said. We expect the private sector would also increase their first offer, but we did not speak with them before the meeting was adjourned.

Furthermore, a prominent labor leader expressed, in an anonymous statement, that the administration felt embarrassed about its proposal “because it knew it was not realistic and it knew it was not going to be

accepted.”

They were aware that giving employees such a small payment would be embarrassing. He issued a warning to state governors and the OPS, saying, “Negotiation has not begun; negotiation can only begin

when the government shows seriousness in negotiating.”

He went on to say that because workers in the private sector were earning N77,000, organized labor was unable to negotiate a pay decrease.

Calls to Ajaero and Usifo’s phone rang unanswered, so they could not be reached for comment on the impassed meeting. Messages asking for their thoughts on the development were not answered.

However, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, the Deputy President of the NLC Political Commission, claimed to The PUNCH that the Nigerian workers were being purposefully frustrated by the Federal Government.

Ndubuaku claimed that although the government was aware that the majority of people were finding it difficult to cope with the suffering and inflation brought on by its policies, it was not demonstrating compassion.

“We are concerned about this government,” he stated. It appeared as though we were bargaining with non-Nigerians. They are acting like foreigners living abroad or extraterrestrials. We’re not sure we

comprehend.

“They appeared to be expecting us to negotiate a deregulated salary structure because they were providing N54,000 as the minimum wage. Nobody is currently making less than N77,000.

“Recall that there was a minimum pay of N30,000 and an additional N35,000 that was added as a wage award. Prior to that, the current wage had increased by 40%, making the total amount N77,000. Imagine

for a moment that they are suddenly providing us with significantly less than what is expected of workers at home.

Imagine that if we leave that negotiation having agreed to those terms, will Nigerian workers not lynch you? he continued. The consequences of this government’s actions remain unknown to them.

“In a nation where hardship is affecting everyone, it is unprecedented that you are focusing on pay decreases when everything else, including food, is increasing. We get the impression that these folks are

either making jokes or are extraterrestrial.

Ndubuaku stated that the unions are going back to the negotiating table on Wednesday to decide whether to instruct employees to stay at home until the federal government makes a reasonable offer.

This is the next course of action that the NLC is considering in the wake of the debacle.

We’ve decided to postpone until tomorrow (today) as a backup plan. However, the workers themselves will provide them with the joke’s solution if they carry on with it.

We’ll have to inform them that we were unsuccessful and that they should all stay at home. Until they wake up, that is how things will remain, he said.

The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, would not reply calls or messages left on his line, therefore it was impossible to get in contact with the Federal Government for comment.

Government is at blame as a group

The OPS and the administration of President Bola Tinubu proposed minimum wages of N48,000 and N54,000, respectively. The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights referred to this impasse as absurd.

The N48,000 offered by the Tinubu-led government, according to a statement from the CDWR’s National Chairperson, Rufus Olusesan, and National Publicity Secretary, Chinedu Bosah, was a reasonable response

to “a government whose agenda for growing the exploitative capitalist economy is to further enrich the privileged-few and pauperise the working masses.”

The organization declared, “Both the capitalist government and the owners of private companies have always claimed that there is not enough money to pay workers a living wage, but there is plenty of money

for frivolities, profligates, insane privileges, and the payment of enormous salaries and allowances to management personnel and top political office holders.”

The purchase of SUVs by National Assembly members cost N57.6 billion. This is only one of many instances of the profligacy that have come to represent the capitalist ruling class. Workers receive

compensation based on their production, but the ruling class of capitalists is a parasite on the economy.

The CDWR stated that the NLC and TUC leadership erred in their refusal to oppose “the anti-poor neo-liberal policies” and instead attempted to obtain a salary review as a means of providing relief for

Nigerian workers.