Indications emerged yesterday that the Federal Government and organised labour are heading for a showdown over a new minimum wage as the 6th meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage, NNMW, ended in another stalemate.
Organised labour’s negotiating team for the second time in two weeks, however, walked out of the committee meeting after the Federal Government increased its offer to N60,000 from the N57,000 it offered on Wednesday, May 22.
Organised Labour, represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart, had on May 15, walked out of the tripartite committee meeting after the government offered N48,000 and Organised Private Sector, OPS, offered N54,000, against the N615,000 minimum wage demand by labour.
It will be recalled that at last week’s meeting, the government and the private sector offered N57,000, while Labour reduced its demand from N615, 000 to N497, 000.
However, at the resumed meeting yesterday, the government and the OPS added N3,000 to last week’s offers of N57,000, thereby raising their offers to N60, 000.
Labour immediately followed the footsteps of the government and OPS to reduce its demand by N3,000, bringing it down to N494, 000 before walking out.
Labour had given government up till May 31, to conclude negotiations to avoid industrial disharmony.
Confirming the development, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, told Vanguard yesterday: “The government is not serious with the negotiation. They just added N3, 000 to their offer last week.