FG nonchalant about new minimum wage deliberations — TUC threatens strike

The Trade Union Congress, TUC said the Federal Government has been nonchalant about deliberations on the new minimum wage.

President of the TUC, Festus Osifo disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today.

The labour union threatened to embark on strike if the issue is not resolved.

Osifo said, “The government must be very serious in addressing the issue of a new minimum wage.”

Recall that in the last few months, labour unions and the Federal Government have been locked in negotiations over a new minimum wage with the former giving an ultimatum of May 31st.

Labour had initially demanded a  ₦615,000 minimum wage but reduced it twice – now at ₦494,000.

The government and the organised private sector had initially proposed ₦48,000 and ₦54,000 which were also rejected by the labour.

During a meeting of the committee on minimum wage on Tuesday, labour rejected the Federal Government’s new minimum wage proposal.

According to Osifo, the new proposal does not tally with the nation’s economic realities.

Osifo said with Nigeria’s inflation rate of 33.69% as of April 2024 based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), labour had to “completely reject” the Federal Government’s latest offer of ₦60,000.

He said, “So, for us, we completely reject it. We want the government to be serious. Let them come and give us a breakdown of how a family is going to live with the minimum wage of ₦60,000.

“Remember, our ultimatum still subsists that we have issued on May 1st and today is the 28th day of May. So, what that clearly means is that we still have three days to resolve this matter.”

President Bola Tinubu has introduced some reforms including the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira.

But Osifo has accused the Tinubu government of policy somersaults and not having “deep thinking”.

The TUC president said, “So, for us, we would rate them 2.5 out of 10 which is 25%.”