Organised Labour in the country has slashed its demand for a new minimum wage to N500, 000.
The nation’s s workforce had earlier demanded N615, 000 minimum wage, saying they arrived at the figure based on the current economic reality in the country.
The Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Political Commission, disclosed this to The Punch on Wednesday.
Both the NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, are currently involved in the tripartite minimum wage negotiation with the state, federal government and the Employer Consultative Forum representing the Private Sector.
The magazine reported that organized labour had earlier rejected both N48,000 and N54,000 offered by the federal government, describing the offer as insensitive to the current plight of the Nigerian workers.
“Yes, it is true we have reduced it to N500,000. But we are still not making progress at the moment,” Prof. Ndubuaku said as the negotiation between the parties continues.
The negotiation was resumed on Tuesday after it was deadlocked for almost a week. The NLC and TUC had left the negotiation in anger after the federal government proposed N48, 000 as the new wage.
Speaking on the fresh offer of N54, 000 by the federal government, NLC President Joe Ajaero stated that the offer is not “substantial” to sustain the Nigerian worker.
He said a good minimum wage with bridge the gap between the “bourgeoisie” and the workers.
The offer, he said, “is still not substantial compared to what we need to make a family moving.”
“The economy of the workers is totally destroyed. In fact, the workers doesn’t have any economy. I think there are two economies in the country; the economy of the bourgeoisie and the economy of the workers. I think we have to harmonise this so that we can have a meeting point.”
Meanwhile, not a few Nigerians insist that the demand of N500, 000 as minimum wage by the NLC and TUC is not realistic, considering the situation of things in the country.
For instance, many state governments in the country are still struggling to pay the current N30, 000 minimum wage.
In fact, state governors who are supposed to be part of the ongoing negotiation have absented themselves, a pointer that some states would reject any agreement reached with Labour on the issue.
