The meeting between the Federal Government and Organised Labour, yesterday ended in deadlock as leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and their Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterparts, rejected the government’s offers.
However, the meeting will reconvene at 4 p.m. today.
Sources at the meeting told newsmen that the labour leaders rejected President Bola Tinubu’s N25,000 provisional wage award for low-grade workers to cushion the effect of the removal of the petrol subsidy.
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The labour leaders told Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to prepare to take all of them to jail because the government had been threatening them with a court order, saying “This is not acceptable.”
Recall that President Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast, on the occasion of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Anniversary, had said: “Based on our talks with labour, business and other stakeholders, we are introducing a provisional wage increment to enhance the federal minimum wage without causing undue inflation.
‘’For the next six months, the average low-grade worker shall receive an additional Twenty-Five Thousand naira per month.
“Commencing this month, the social safety net is being extended through the expansion of cash transfer programmes to an additional 15 million vulnerable households.”
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However it was gathered that Organized Labour in its meeting with the Federal Government team at the Permanent Conference Room, Presidential Villa, Abuja, rejected the N25,000 provisional wage award and demanded 200 per cent of the current minimum wage.
Besides, Labour insisted that the provisional wage increase should be for all workers, pending the enactment of a new Minimum Wage Act next year and must not be limited to only six months.
The labour leaders equally insisted that the conditional cash transfer for the poorest and vulnerable people should be increased to N25,000 for 15 million vulnerable Nigerians, against the N5,000 the previous administration was paying.
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