Organised Labour in Nigeria have been warned by the Federal Government to broadly consider the larger implications of its demands for a higher minimum wage which is viewed as unrealistic. This admonition was conveyed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who expressed the fact that the ₦250,000 minimum wage could to a mass retrenchment of workers and that the negative consequences of such a move is inevitable. He also established the Government’s commitment towards reassessing the minimum wage but warned that certain demands could disrupt the economy.
“The Federal Government is not opposed to the increase of wages for Nigerian workers but we keep on advocating for a realistic and sustainable wage system for the workers- a wage system that will not undermine the economy, lead to mass retrenchment of workers and jeopardize the welfare of about 200 million Nigerians”.
This comes after the Labour Unions refuted the claims of President Bola Tinubu in the National Democracy Day Broadcast, that an agreement had been reached with the Unions. The NLC’s acting President, Prince Adewale Adeyanju insisted that since the last negotiation session with the Federal Government on June 7, no agreement had been reached on a new National Minimum Wage.
He said “The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the President would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the Federal Government and the employers on the base figure for a National Minimum wage, nor on its other components…We are therefore surprised at the submission of the President over a supposed agreement. We believe he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC “
