Just In: Labour Revises Minimum-Wage Demand To ₦100,000 After Negotiations

Just In: Labour Revises Minimum-Wage Demand To ₦100,000 After Negotiations

Reports indicate that organized labour has significantly lowered its initial demand for a ₦494,000 national minimum wage. According to Punch, labour leaders may now settle for ₦100,000 as the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage begins five days of daily meetings to reach a consensus.

President Bola Tinubu had previously directed Finance Minister Wale Edun to assess the cost implications of the new minimum wage within 48 hours.

Sources revealed that union leaders are considering a reduction of their demand to ₦100,000 following criticism that their original proposal was unrealistic. A senior NLC official confirmed that while labour has not formally presented its final offer, they plan to insist on a ₦100,000 minimum wage.

“Today’s (Tuesday) meeting was essentially to set an agenda and plan how to complete the assignment within the five days. The government representatives did not mention a raise in the ₦60,000. They just set the agenda on what to do and how to go about the negotiation. There was no mention of any increment. But labour planned to close the negotiation on ₦100,000 minimum wage,” the official stated.

The Deputy Head of NLC Political Commission, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, confirmed that the Tuesday meeting was to establish an agenda for the week-long discussions. He emphasized that the labour movement has relaxed, but not suspended, its strike, keeping the option of resuming industrial action without notice if negotiations fail.

“We met today (Tuesday) to draw up an agenda for the one-week daily meeting. We met today and drew the agenda because the agreement was that we meet daily for one week, and on our own, we said we are relaxing the strike, not even suspending it. It’s more like putting everybody on red alert. It means we are not going to give any notice. Which means by this time next week, we are going on strike. There is a difference between relax and suspend. Relax is to stay on your duty post and put your hands on the trigger. It is tomorrow (today) that we are expecting the government to submit another proposal,” he explained.