The Organised Labour has rejected the N62,000 Minimum Wage proposed by the Federal Government, insisting on the N250,000 Minimum Wage pegged at the Friday meeting with the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage.
Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka disclosed the Unions’ position while speaking on Channels Television’s “The Morning Brief Show” on Monday.
He noted that the Labour would not accept the N62,000 “starvation wage” as the minimum wage for the Nigerian workers, stressing that not even the N100,000 being proposed by some individuals and economists would be accepted.
Onyeka said, “We have never considered accepting ₦62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.
“We have never contemplated ₦100,000 let alone of ₦62,000. We are still at ₦250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation. We are not just driven by frivolities but the realities of the market place; realities of things we buy every day: bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that”.
He reminded that the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by the Midnight of Tuesday, June 11, 2024, warning that the organised labour may resume the indefinite nationwide strike if the Federal Government and the National Assembly fail to act on the demands.
“The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various fact of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.
“If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the Organised Labour will meet to decide on what next”, he said.
Asked what the decision of Labour would be if the government insists on ₦62,000, Onyeka said, “it was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and that organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”
