NLC suspends planned strike as FG battles Between N24,000, N30,000 Minimum Wage

Abasi Femi Oguntayo
Fountain Newsbreaker

The
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has suspended planned strike as the
Tripartite Committee set up by the Federal Government agreed on N30,000
new minimum wage though Government delegation is suggesting 24,000

Nigeria
Labour Congress President, Ayuba Waba while addressing a rally on Good
Governance before a delegation took a list of Labour demands to Ag.
President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

At
the end of the first meeting of the tripartite committee set up to
arrive at an agreeable minimum wage template, Chairperson of the
committee and former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Ms Ama
People had said while the federal government insisted on N24,000,
organized labour maintained its earlier stance of N30, 000.

 She however
said the government pleaded with labour to call off its planned strike
“We have concluded and we have a little challenge with what we call
Chapter 5 of our report, that is where we have the numbers and the
figures we used for the negotiations and the figures that we concluded
with and the committee has two figures: the N24, 000 suggested by the
federal government and the N30, 000 given by the organized labour.

“There is no stalemate. We have finished and we have signed it but we
are insisting that the strike must be called off. There are still two
figures, N24, 000 and N34, 000. You know that labour came up with a
figure of N66, 500 but when we put all that together with the figure we
got from the states…so, we put all that in a basket plus the initial
figure that the federal government recommended which was N20, 700. We
put them together in a basket and came up with four scenarios, we worked
with one of the scenarios and that was how we agreed on that N24, 000
and N30, 000 respectively”, said Ms People.

Asked on what the committee
was going to submit, she said both figures would be forwarded to the
president. On his part, Labour and Employment minister, Chris Ngige said
the committee was working to secure an appointment with President
Muhammadu Buhari, adding that its resolution would be passed to the
Federal Executive Council, then the National Economic Council and later
the National Council of State after which the president would initiate
an Executive Bill to be transmitted to the National Assembly. He said;
“We are making progress. The governors’ figure should be the figure of
the federal government. We are just trying to carry them along. That is
why we made the discussions ‘tripartite plus’. It is just because we
want to carry them along, otherwise the federal government speaks for
governments.

“Yes, the figures are standing but we know that there are
other processes. It has to go through the Federal Executive Council, the
National Executive Council and the National Council of State, then an
Executive Bill will be transmitted to the National Assembly”. Asked if
the two figures would pass through those processes, he said; “Yes,
because the federal government figure is noted and is also weighty
because it says that it depends on the ability to pay, affordability and
sustainability. “Labour are quiet satisfied, we are doing the needful,
we have passed the rubicon. The only aspect of it now that we need to do
is to fix an appointment for the handing over of the report to Mr
President. We are reconvening tonight because that appointment has to be
gotten because the president has gone home. He is not just sitting down
in the office. If we get the appointment now, we will reconvene later
and agree on how to proceed. “The governors have no choice now because
they have attached themselves to us because we are the supreme
sovereign, they are minor sovereigns”, he added. On whether the strike
would go on as planned on Tuesday, he said, “no”, referring all
enquiries to labour leaders.