Minimum wage: Labour kicks as FEC steps down memo

The Organised Labour on Tuesday kicked against the Federal Executive Council’s decision to step down the memorandum on the report of the Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage.
The Head of Public Relations of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Benson Upah, who criticised the failure of FEC to consider the memo during Tuesday’s FEC meeting, said stepping down the tripartite committee report “creates room for injurious speculations.”
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told journalists after the council meeting that the FEC stepped down the memorandum on the new minimum wage to allow for more consultations between President Bola Tinubu, state governors, local government authorities and the private sector.
Idris said the council deferred acting on the memo given that the Federal Government is not the sole stakeholder on the national minimum wage issue.
The Federal Government, Organised Private Sector and Labour had held several meetings on the new minimum wage with the NLC and Trade Union Congress leaders insisting on N250,000.
On the other hand, the Federal Government, states and the OPS made a counter-offer of N62,000.
However, the state governors argued that they would not sustain any minimum wage higher than N60,000.
The Assistant General Secretary of the NLC, Chris Onyeka, said Labour would not accept the latest offer of N62,000 and the N100,000 proposal made by some individuals and economists.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the unionists were waiting on the President to consider Labour’s proposal.
But speaking at the opening of the 2024 Synod of the Charismatic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in Abuja, the information minister emphasised the imperative of a realistic wage system that could safeguard against mass retrenchment while addressing workers’ needs.
Idris argued that the N250,000 minimum wage proposal could undermine the economy, lead to mass retrenchment of workers and jeopardise the welfare of Nigerians.
But in his Democracy Day broadcast, the President promised to forward a bill on the new minimum wage to the National Assembly soon.
He told governors and members of the National Assembly on the occasion of the nation’s 25th Democracy Day anniversary at the State House that his administration would pay whatever it could afford as the new minimum wage.
This statement drew the anger of Labour, which insisted that the political office-holders should also be paid the minimum wage.
The Senate spokesman, Yemi Adaramodu, said, “The President will likely send the minimum wage bill after the Sallah break.”
The Senate had adjourned plenary for the Sallah break and is due to resume on July 2.
But the then acting President of the NLC, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, said Labour would not accept the N62,000 proposed by the government and OPS, advising the President to pay workers a living wage and ignore those he described as sycophants.
He also refuted insinuations that a consensus had been reached between the Federal Government and Labour on the new wage.
On Monday, the NLC President, Ajaero, mentioned that Organised Labour expected Tinubu to reach out to the members of the tripartite committee to harmonise the figure, given the stalemate at the end of the committee meeting.
Addressing State House correspondents after Tuesday’s FEC meeting, the information minister, Idris, explained that the President needed to interact with other wage-paying entities to factor their contributions and circumstances into the executive bill on minimum wage that would be passed on to the National Assembly for passa