Labour, which had earlier proposed N66,500, later scaled down to N38,000 and said that would be the least it could accept for Nigerian workers.
Bimbola Oyesola
The new minimum wage for workers in the country may have been fixed for N30,000 as the committee finalised its negotiation last Friday.
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This was even as the committee is set to present the report which has N30,000 recommendation to President Muhammadu Buhari any moment from now.
Though the Organised Labour is yet to issue any statement on the outcome of the two-day meeting, a reliable source, however, said the committee has finalised its work.
Recall that members of the Organised Labour had embarked on a seven-day warning strike penultimate week after the expiration of 14-day ultimatum, and the strike was suspended after assurance from the government that the committee would return to the negotiation table last Thursday and Friday.
The source said the committee arrived at N30,000 after so much arguments and face-off between the representatives of the Organised Labour and government.
According to the source, the government had come up with N24,000, which the workers’ representatives bluntly rejected.
“This may be because they want to be in agreement with the Organised Private Sector who had proposed N25,000, but Labour refused and told them that it was unacceptable” he said.
He, however, said that Labour, which had earlier proposed N66,500 during last week’s meeting, later scaled down to N38,000 and stuntly said that would be the least it could accept for the Nigerian workers.
The source explained further that it was the Organised Private Sector that now played the role of an arbiter by adjusting the figure to N30,000.
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He stated, “The Organised Labour were not particularly happy with it, but it is negotiation and believed that it was not too bad, it is a figure that we can work with.
“But one can see that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, seems not too happy with the figure as his countenance expressed, but that is not our concern. That was the decision of the committee.”
Our source said the government side seems disappointed with the Organised Private Sector, whom it must have had some understanding with as the OPS who earlier proposed N41,000, later reduced it to N25,000.
But the Organised Labour was confident that the government would have no choice but to accept the figure proposed by the committee.
“The government of the day knows the implications of toying with the workers demand. This is a very sensitive period as opponent may offer to pay as high as N40,000”, our source stated.
He noted that though the Presidency only inaugurated the committee to recommend what it feels should be appropriate new minimum wage, he stressed that labour would not accept anything below the N30,000 submitted by the committee.
