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The Federal Government has increased its offer of a new national minimum wage to N62,000, while organised labour has reduced its demand from N494,000 to N250,000.
This comes after the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, submitted the cost implication of minimum wage to President Bola Tinubu, reports The PUNCH.
A source confirmed this to our correspondent on Friday night in Abuja.
“After wasting our time, they finally came up with the offer of N62,000 which was backed by the private sector. Labour also reduced ours to N250,000. This is embarrassing,” the source who is part of negotiation from the labour side said.
The PUNCH reports that Tinubu had earlier directed Edun to present the cost implications for a new minimum wage within two days.
The President gave the order at a meeting with the government negotiation team led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Though Edun has submitted the proposal to the president, it has not been made public.
Recall that organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, had embarked on a nationwide strike on Monday to demand an increased minimum wage for workers and the reversal of the recently increased electricity tariffs.
However, the labour union leadership suspended the strike on Tuesday for five days after signing a commitment with the Federal Government to resume negotiations and come up with a new minimum wage within a week.
It is not yet clear if labour will accept the new proposal from the government.
The Nigerian Governors Forum had, earlier on Friday, said any minimum wage above N60,000 will not be sustainable.
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Labour is more of an opportunist organisation.I doubt if they give due considerations for some of their actions,let’s agree that the government succumbed to their request, what happens to the private sectors and those corporations trying only to remain in business,do they look at the unintended consequences?
Where was labour when the governments were deliberately engaging in the activities that culminated in this hyper inflation,their argument will be that inflation is a global issue,but there are still nations that are not suffering from this untoward inflation.
Inflation basically, is the cumulative rascallity and extravagance of the political class and their allies in the process of governance