Minimum Wage: FG, Labour stick to N62, 000; N250,000 respectively despite meeting with Tinubu –Minister

***We have discussion not negotiation –Ajaero

By Egena Sunday Ode

The meeting of President Bola Tinubu with leaders of the Organised Labour, expected to resolve the lingering issue of national minimum wage, ended on the contrary as the Federal Government and Labour will maintain the status quo offer of N62,000 and demand of N250,000 respectively for now.

Minister of (State) Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, disclosed this to newsmen while fielding questions on the outcome of the meeting held at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.

The labour leaders were led to the meeting by the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo.

The Tripartite Committee on the new national minimum wage had recently submitted two figures to the President as the organized private sector and the government team had offered to pay N62,000, while the organized labour demanded N250,000.

Following the disagreement over the figure, the President had said he would consult with all the relevant stakeholders in order to resolve all the contentious issues before sending any figure to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill.

Onyejeocha told newsmen that the meeting was a father-children affair and that it was all for good.

She said: “It is a fruitful meeting, father, children meeting. I think we are hopeful that very soon everything will be resolved. Of course, when father and children talk you know what it is. That’s just exactly what has happened. It took us almost about an hour. I believe that it’s all for good.”

Pressed further, she said: “I remember mentioning that we didn’t go into Naria and kobo discussion. Now the status quo in terms of the amount N250,000 and N62,000 remains until we finish this conversation.”

On his part, however, the

NLC President, Ajaero while answering questions from newsmen, said the meeting with President Tinubu was not a negotiation but a discussion.

“In a real sense, it wasn’t a negotiation but a discussion and we have had that discussion. We agreed to look at the real terms probably and reconvene in the next one week. So that’s where we are. Because we didn’t go down there to talk naira and kobo. At least there were some basic issues that we agreed on.”

On the issue agreed on at the meeting, TUC’s Festus Osifo said the Organised Labour simply place the issues in contention on the table such as the current economic hardship, the declining value of the Naira and how they have affected prices of commodities in the market.

He said:”In the meeting we tried to put the issues in the table. Issues that are bothering and bitting Nigerians today, the economic difficulties and the value of naira, how it has also eroded, how these have affected the prices of commodities and goods in the market.

“So, we tried to put these before Mr President because he is the president of the country and the bulk stops at his table.

“We have had all the conversations with all his agents, but today we said let us meet with the father of the country and have this conversation and make the argument that Labour always make, we made all the arguments, the economic analysis, macro, micro, fiscal and monetary issues. so we are put everything forward and at the end, the president made his remark as the president and we all agreed let’s go back, we internalize it, we have some conversation, we will come back and we will continue the meeting.”