Minimum wage: FG, Labour in tough negotiation

… Sets up new sub-committee Again, the Federal Government and the organised labour could not reach a truce over the consequential adjustment of the N30, 000 new national minimum wage after a ten-hour meeting. The meeting started at 4:00pm on Wednesday and ended in the wee hours of Thursday, at 2:00am. The Minister of Labour […]

… Sets up new sub-committee

Again, the Federal Government and the organised labour could not reach a truce over the consequential adjustment of the N30, 000 new national minimum wage after a ten-hour meeting.

The meeting started at 4:00pm on Wednesday and ended in the wee hours of Thursday, at 2:00am.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige however stated that both sides have made some progress, adding that “we’re giving some people on both sides assignment to go and do the work and get back to us.”

“The work is enormous. So, we’re giving them the entire day to get back to us. We don’t want to make mistakes that could put the whole exercise we’ve done in jeopardy.”

“Therefore we’ve agreed that we’ll reconvene this meeting at 7:00pm today (Thursday)”

The President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba confirmed the development saying progress has been made in the negotiation.

He said that” Some committees need to do some work. You can see that they have worked up to the early hours of today, that is, in the true spirit of collective bargaining, which is ‘give and take’ and that is what we’re trying to do and ensure that we get the process concluded”

Responding to whether workers should remain at home or embark on the industrial action, he said” You can see that the meeting is adjourned, collective bargaining is still in progress, that is not our practice to embark on strike while bargaining is still on”