Why Labour Accepted ₦70,000 Minimum Wage — NLC, TUC

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero; and his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, say the Organised Labour agreed to ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers because the wage reviews in the country will no longer be every five years but once in three years.

They spoke on Thursday after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

Information Minister Mohammed Idris, Labour Minister Nkiruka Onyejeocha, and other officials from both sides flanked both Ajaero and Osifo.

The NLC President said, “What has been announced in terms of the amount of N70,000 happened to be where we are now. But the cool thing about it is that we will not wait for another five years to come on review.

“Rather than settling on a figure that we wait for five years, it’s like we’ll have to now negotiate even two times within five years.

“That is one of the reasons why we decided to reach where we are today. Because of the proviso that we can review in the next three years.

“The other one, we came with other issues in the basket, like the issue of SSANU, NASU and others, especially with the affront by the Commissioner of Police FCT, we brought it to Mr President, and talk on the need for that matter to be addressed. And magnanimously, he (Tinubu) asked the agencies concerned to work out the modalities for the payment of those workers in the universities.”

Also, Osifo said, “The President (Tinubu) made a pronouncement or announcement of N70,000. By next week, he should put the finishing touches to the bill and the transmission to the National Assembly.

“But why this became a catch is because we, from Organised Labour, have been pushing that the issue of five years review is a long time, that a lot of economic indices may have changed because we are in an era where things are moving very fast in terms of both macro and micro economic policies.

“But there is a caveat that this is going to be done every three years, the next review should be in three years. And after that pronouncement, we from labour received what the President has promised.”

The “agreement” between the two sides followed a series of talks between labour leaders and the President in the last few weeks after months of failed talks between labour organs and a tripartite committee on minimum wage constituted by the President in January.

The committee, which comprised state and federal governments and the Organised Private Sector, had proposed ₦62,000 while labour insisted on ₦250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers who currently earn ₦30,000 as minimum wage.

Labour had said ₦30,000 was unsustainable for any worker going by the economic vagaries of inflation and high cost of living which followed the removal of petrol subsidy by the President.

The information minister confirmed on Thursday that the ₦70,000 “agreed” amount would be communicated with the National Assembly in the coming days.