Nigerian labour union contending for higher minimum wage say they will not consider ₦100,000 let alone ₦62,000 government is proposing. The Federal Government with the state governments and organized private sector employers association reached the consensus on ₦62,000 on Friday.
The unions says even ₦100,000 is grossly inadequate for lowest paid workers given the market realities and cost of living.
Chris Onyeka, Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made the comments during an interview on a breakfast The Morning Brief show on Channels Television earlier today. He warned that if the Federal Government and National Assembly did not address worker’s demands by Tuesday June 11, 2024, the unions may resume the industrial action suspended last week.
Labour’s latest demand of ₦250,000 as the living wage for the average Nigerian worker was reiterated during the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage.
“Our position is very clear,” said Onyeka during the interview Monday.
Tacit Threat Of Strike
Onyeka reminded the government that the one-week grace period extended last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, to allow for negotiation would lapse by midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
He emphasized that if the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to address the workers’ demands by tomorrow (Tuesday), the NLC and TUC organs will convene to determine the resumption of the nationwide industrial action that was suspended last week.
“We said we are relaxing an indefinite nationwide 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.”
The NLC Official 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 ₦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 marketplace; realities of things we buy every day: bags of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.
“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 facts 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.”
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