The face-off between organised labour and the Federal Government in Nigeria, over a new minimum wage, has been on since 2016 and is yet to be resolved. Labour insists the N30,000 negotiated figure from its initial demand of N66,500, is no longer negotiable, but government says its offer of N22,500 is guided by the need to sustain a new wage structure.
Correspondent Joke Adisa reports that former President, Goodluck Jonathan signed the minimum wage bill into law in 2011.
The Act moved minimum wage to N18, 000 from a paltry N7, 500. That feat took organized labour three years of protests, strikes and rallies to attain.
The same scenario is again playing out as labour unions in Nigeria have been untiring in their engagement with the Buhari administration for a necessary review of the law.
By the 2011 Act, employers of labour, with more than fifty workers, in both public and private establishments in Nigeria are mandated to pay N18000 as minimum wage to their employees. That law is to be reviewed every five years, meaning that the N18000 minimum wage lapsed in 2016.
Since then, the struggle has been on.
It took one year for the tripartite committee set up by the federal government to submit its report.
Representatives of organized labour on that committee decried what they said was a tactical delay on the part of government in submitting the agreed figure to the necessary quarters.
From an initial demand of N66, 500 initial labour negotiated down to N30, 000 and believes the figure is no longer open to debate
But government, especially at the state levels, believe acceding to that request will be inimical to the their respective economies.
Weeks after the report was submitted to President Muhamamdu Buhari, organized labour gave a December the 31st deadline for its transmission to the National Assembly.
Labour says it is set for nationwide rallies and protests on Tuesday, January the 8th, ahead of an indefinite strike to drive home its demand for the transmission, passage, assent and implementation of the N30,000 new minimum wage.
To avert the looming threats of the economy being grinded to a halt, the federal government has again returned to the negotiation table with organized labour.
This time, labour seeks a commitment from the government regarding the date the bill will be sent to the Federal parliament.
After about seven hours behind closed doors on Friday, the meeting ended inconclusive and both camps agreed to resume talks on Monday.
Government believes considerable success has been made with the Friday meeting and looks forward to the suspension of the proposed rallies and industrial action.
Labour on the other hand, maintains that the outcome of Monday’s meeting, will define its next line of action.
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