New minimum wage: Labour makes fresh demand from Tinubu

Source: Legit.ng - Nigeria news.
Author: Bada Yusuf

FCT, Abuja - Organised labour has called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in person in the ongoing negotiation between the federal government and the unions on a new minimum wage.

According to the union, Tinubu's personal intervention in the negotiation could help avert the indefinite strike that labour has scheduled to commence on Monday, June 3.

According to The Punch, the union's demand came as the federal government cautioned that the new national minimum wage that the labour was asking for would destabilise the economy.

Recall that the organised labour earlier gave May 31, 2024, as the ultimatum to decide on the new minimum wage to the government.

Negotiation between the federal government and organised labour ended in deadlock as the government and organised private sector increased their offer to N60,000.

The government had added N3,000 to its earlier proposed N57,000 to round up the figure to N60,000, but the union dismissed the new proposal during the meeting.

Several sources within the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) disclosed that the federal government and the organised private sector should not think that labour would accept anything less than a six-digit wage.

According to the union, there is no seriousness on the part of the government. They lamented that the offer by the government was too meagre and that such should not be considered a shifting ground.

They said that the promise President Tinubu made during his inauguration day and on workers' day was to provide a living wage for their members, but noted that what the federal government was proposing did not falling within a living wage.