The president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, have been quoted as saying “no figure is sacrosanct as there is always room for adjustments” as labour unions continue their lingering discussions on a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The tripartite committee on minimum wage recently ended its deliberations and submitted two figures to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for consideration as the new minimum wage; While the government and the organized private sector are proposing ₦62,000, organized labour is demanding ₦250,000 as the new minimum wage.
Osifo seems to be giving some wiggle room to the government as he said “what we said is that for us when we give figures, there is always a room to meander, there is always a room for us to do some adjustment here and there,”
“So, there is no figure that is sacrosanct, there is no figure that is cast in stone that both parties will be fixated on it.”
“One of the reasons that we went on industrial action the last time was because when it got to N60,000, they told us that a kobo cannot even join the N60,000, that they cannot even add one naira to it.
“So that was one of the reasons that led to that industrial action beyond the fact that there were also delays,” the labour leader said.
President Tinubu is expected to send an executive bill to the national assembly soon for legislative action.