Labour announces date to conclude minimum wage talks with FG

The Organised Labour has revealed that negotiation with the Federal Government on a new national minimum wage will resume on Friday.

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, confirmed this in a letter.

Ajaero said that organised labour will honour the invitation by the Federal Government to the negotiation table but warned that the discussion will not be a “monologue.”

He said: “Yes, we will attend but you know our ultimatum expires on Friday. If they present a better offer on Friday we will accept it.

“But we will not attend the meeting for the sake of talks. We will not go into a monologue.”

On Tuesday, talks between the Federal Government and Organised Labour broke down after the government and Organised Private Sector (OPS) raised their offers to N60,000.

The government added N3,000 to its initial offer of N57,000 proposed last week, taking the total figure to N60,000.

Labour described the proposal as “insulting” while walking away from the tripartite meeting.

At the meeting, labour again lowered its demand by removing N3,000 from the N497,000 it proposed last week, pegging the new proposal at N494,000.

To fast-track the negotiation process, the NLC and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on May Day gave the committee till the end of the month to wrap up talks on a new national minimum wage.

That ultimatum will expire on Friday night.