The organized labor has made it clear that they will not accept anything less than a substantial increment from the N60,000 earlier proposed by the federal government as the new minimum wage.
While an agreement was reached with the federal government’s team on a new minimum wage “above N60,000,” the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, emphasized that the labor’s priority is a significant raise, not merely fixating on a specific figure.
Osifo stressed the importance of the new minimum wage being economically realistic considering current inflationary pressures, challenging the tripartite committee to demonstrate seriousness in offering an amount with equal purchasing power to the value of N30,000 in 2019 and N18,000 in 2014.
In response to the strike called by organized labor over the government’s reluctance to increase the new minimum wage beyond N60,000, the National Executive Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC relaxed the strike for one week.
This decision was made to allow room for the federal government to commit to a concrete national minimum wage.
Furthermore, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to present the cost implication of a new minimum wage within 48 hours.
The president also directed all parties involved in the negotiation to collaborate and ensure the realization of an acceptable, sustainable, and realistic new wage for Nigerians within a week.
However, the Senate criticized the labor unions for shutting down the national power grid during the strike, branding the action as economic sabotage and proposing to pass an executive bill to prevent such occurrences in the future.
