Minimum wage: Labour dumps negotiation over FG’s N48,000 proposal

•Negotiation has broken down, N48,000 amounts to wage reduction – Unions

The Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress on Wednesday dumped the minimum wage negotiation after the Federal Government offered to pay N48,000, a figure far below the N615,00 the unions were demanding as the new national minimum wage.

After abandoning the session, the furious labour leaders summoned  an emergency press conference where they vented their displeasure with the offer, describing it as  ‘an insult to the sensibilities of Nigerian workers.’

This was the second time in two weeks that the negotiation had run into trouble. The last session, held on April 29, deadlocked after organised labour insisted on N615,000 minimum wage

The Federal Government disagreed with labour’s demand, which it deemed unreasonable.

However, the National President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, explained that the amount was arrived at after analysing the current economic situation and the needs of an average Nigerian family of six.

Rationalising the N615,000 demand, the labour leader stated, “Living wage is such that will, at least, keep you alive. It is not a wage that will make you poorer and poorer. It is not a wage that will make you borrow to go to work. It is not a wage that will lead you to be in the hospital every day because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried to look at N615,000.