• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Minimum wage stalemate: FG, labour return to negotiation next week

New minimum wage

The organised labour and government are returning to the negotiation next week to resolve the impasse created by their disagreement on the consequential adjustment on the N30,000 new national minimum wage signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 18, this year, a labour source told BusinessDay on Monday.

Labour under the aegis of the Trade Union Side (TUS) of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), has consistently accused the government of working to derail negotiations that will result in consequential adjustment of salaries to reflect the N30,000 new wage.

The TUS led by Anchaver Simon, chairman, and Alade Lawal, secretary, had before warned that the eight unions in the public services of the federal and 36 state governments would embark on an industrial action if, by June 28, the government failed to make any headway with the negotiation to pay the minimum wage. A source told BusinessDay that the unions had to back down on their threat to allow for continuation of negotiation.

According to the TUS, since the committee set up early in June by the government to work out the consequential adjustment of the wage started meeting, “the government had been coming up with strange proposals with the intent to scuttle the implementation of the N30,000 new wage.”

 The labour leaders stated that the TUS had initially proposed that since the minimum wage was increased by 66.66 percent (from N18,000 to N30,000), salaries for officers on grade levels 01-17 should be adjusted accordingly to maintain the relativity that exists in the salary structure in the public service, a position that the Federal Government has rejected, citing inability to pay, even after the TUS reviewed its demand to 30 percent for officers on grade levels 07-14 and 25 percent for those on grade levels 15-17.

Consequently, Richard Egbule, chairman, National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC), has blamed the delay in the commencement of the implementation of the new wage on labour.

Egbule, who spoke in Abuja on Monday, still insisted that the demand of the labour unions would raise the total wage bill too high and that was why government could not accept their proposed salary adjustments.

“Labour is asking for consequential adjustment and government in its wisdom had made budgetary provision for an adjustment of N10, 000 across board for those already earning above N30, 000 per month.

“However, the unions have refused this offer, saying that because the increase in minimum wage from 18,000 to N30, 000 was 66 per cent, therefore they want 66 percent increment across board.

“We told them that the minimum wage was not raised from N18, 000 to N30, 000 through percentage increase but as a result of consideration of economic factors including ability to pay. However, we said that if they want consequential adjustments in percentage terms, we will use a percentage that when applied will not exceed what has been provided for in the budget,” said Egbule.

 

JOSHUA BASSEY