Tinubu Meets Labour Union Today Over Minimum Wage
Nigeria’s organised Labour Union will today, July 11, 2024, meet with President Bola Tinubu regarding the minimum wage negotiation, which has lingered for months.
Neusroom understands that the meeting at the Presidential Villa will be held with the intention of agreeing on a new minimum wage for the country.
The talks regarding a new national wage that will help address the high cost of living have stalled, with both the government and the Labour Unions unable to reach an agreement.
After Labour grounded the nation’s economic activities on June 3, President Tinubu, during his June 12 Democracy Day speech, said that his administration “had negotiated in good faith and with open arms with organised labour on a new national minimum wage.”
However, this claim was refuted by the organised Labour, which claimed that the President was misled into believing that an agreement had been reached.
Labour Union And President Tinubu’s Administration Locked In A Cycle of Offers and Counter-Offers
There has been contention regarding a minimum wage for Nigerians.
At the start of the negotiation, the Nigeria Labour Congress proposed ₦615,500 and later ₦497,000, figures that economic experts claimed were unsustainable for the Nigerian economy to bear. However, while the Federal Government has made three offers, ₦48,000, ₦60,000, and ₦62,000, the organised Labour has reduced their demand to ₦250,000, a figure they said was reasonable considering the economic realities in the country.
Despite having one of Africa’s biggest economies, Nigeria’s ₦33,000 minimum wage is one of the lowest on the continent.
