The Federal Government said it is optimistic that the impasse over the new minimum wage will be resolved next week.
The Ministers of Information and Labour gave this indication after the closed-door session between President Bola Tinubu and the leaders of organised labour in the state house on Thursday.
The meeting, which lasted about an hour, is to reconvene next week.
The meeting on the new minimum wage follows the president’s decision to have more engagement with stakeholders, before a decision is taken on the matter.
The secretary to the government of the federal, ministers, heads of agencies and aides to the president were also in attendance.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media to the President, Ajuri Ngelale, the president expressed his concern for the welfare of Nigerian workers, but called for realistic expectations as regards the minimum wage.
He said, “I pay attention to everything around me. A happy worker is a productive worker. And society depends on the productivity of the happy worker,”
“You have to cut your coat according to available cloth. Before we can finalise on the minimum wage process, we have to look at the structure.”
“Why must we adjust wages every five years? Why not two? Why not three years? What is a problem today, can be eased up tomorrow. We can take a surgical approach that is based on pragmatism and a deep understanding of all factors.”
This is as the organised labour consisting of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has maintained that its ₦250,000 demand and the ₦62,000 figure submitted by the tripartite committee for new minimum wage remain until after discussions with President Tinubu.
While labour insists on ₦250,000 as a new minimum wage, the committee had pegged it at ₦62,000.
But during the Thursday meeting with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, the organised labour led by the NLC President Joe Ajaero and his TUC counterpart Festus Osifo, said nothing has changed about the demands.
Ajaero said the meeting – which lasted for about an hour and was later adjourned to next week – was not a negotiation and the two figures remain on the table.
“In the real sense, it wasn’t a negotiation but a discussion and we have had that discussion. We agreed to look at the real terms probably and reconvene in the next week. So, that’s where we are because we didn’t go down there to talk naira and kobo,” Ajaero said.
“At least there were some basic issues that we agreed on. The status quo in terms of the amount of N250,000 and N62,000 remains until we finish this conversation.”
According to the TUC boss, the labour delegation informed the President of the economic difficulties Nigerians are going through.
“In the meeting, we tried to put the issues on the table, issues that are bothering and biting Nigerians today. The economic difficulties and the value of the naira, how it has also eroded, and how these have affected the prices of commodities and goods in the market.
“So, we tried to put these before Mr President because he is the president of the country and the bulk stops at his table,” the TUC boss said.
“We have had all the conversations with all his agents, but today we said let us meet with the father of the country and have this conversation and make the argument that labour always makes. We made all the arguments, the economic analysis, macro, micro, fiscal and monetary issues.
“So, we put everything forward and at the end, the President made his remark as the president and we all agreed let’s go back, we internalise it, we have some conversation, and by one week time, we will come back and we will continue the meeting.”
