Labour Suspends Strike As Stakeholders ‘Agree’ N30,000 Minimum Wage
Nigeria’s organized labour Monday suspended its planned industrial action earlier slated for today, (Tuesday) just as a new national minimum wage was pegged at N30,000 by the Tripartite Committee set up by the Federal Government.
It was learnt Monday night that the labour unions had extracted a firm commitment from the government to pay the N30, 000 it demanded as new national minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
“Agreements have been reached and documents have been signed. Organized labour will want to use this medium to thank all the tripartite partners for their understanding. Organized labour also decided that the proposed strike action is hereby suspended and we hope that this will be communicated appropriately without any dilution”, said Ayuba Wabba at the end of the tripartite meeting Monday night.
Both labour and government officials however declined to give the figure that was arrived at, saying President Muhammadu Buhari would announce the new figure when he receives the committee’s report.
On his part, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha thanked the committee for doing a wonderful job on working on the processes of introducing a new national minimum wage for Nigerians.
He said the report of the committee would be submitted to the president Tuesday evening.
“The president has graciously accepted to receive the report tomorrow. I want to put on record the gratitude of the president and Nigerians to members of this committee for putting national interests over and above the constituencies that they represent”, he said adding that government will expedite action on implementation of the report. Chairperson of the committee and former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Ms Ama Pepple also thanked members of the committee for their dedication to duty and specifically thanked the Kebbi state Governor, Atiku Bagudu for personally attending nearly all meetings of the committee.
Part of the report to be presented to the president which was sighted by our reporter last night reads: “Based on the analysis and consideration of available materials, the indicative figure of Thirty-Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Sixty Eight Naira Thirty-Seven Kobo (N37, 768.37) was suggested as the mean/average by the Sub Committee on Recommendation of a New National Minimum Wage (NMW) for the consideration of the plenary of the Committee.
On the receipt of the Report of the Sub-Committee, Plenary considered the Report and adopted Scenario 3 as a basis for negotiations.
‘Negotiations commenced with offers and counter offers. After prolonged negotiations, Organized Labour and Organized Private Sector (OPS) opted for N30,000 per month as the proposed new NMW considering all other factors while the Federal Government insisted on N24,000 (Twenty-Four Thousand Naira) as the new NMW; After further negotiations, a motion was moved by Amechi Asugwuni of Organised Labour and was seconded by Ahmed Ladan Gobir of Organised Private Sector for N30,000 per month as the recommended new NMW.
In view of the above, the Committee kindly invites Mr. President to: note that the meeting adopted the motion proposing N30,000 (Thirty Thousand Naira) per month as the new NMW; and note that the Federal Government insisted on N24,000(Twenty Four Thousand Naira) per month based on the ability to pay.
“Recommendation: The Committee hereby presents N30,000 (Thirty Thousand Naira) per month, as the recommended new National Minimum Wage for consideration.
“Draft Bill on National Minimum Wage The Committee carefully considered the 1981, 2000 and 2011 Acts of the National Minimum wage and based on its decision prepared a draft National Minimum Wage Bill 2018 which is attached as annex IX to the report”.
Pepple Speaking to reporters while the meeting was on break, Chairman of the tripartite committee, Ms Ama Pepple, said: “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.
The committee has two figures – the N24, 000 suggested by the federal government and the N30,000 given by organised labour.
On his part, Labour Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige had asked governors to accept the federal government’s proposal.
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’s figure is noted and is also weighty because it says that it depends on the ability to pay, affordability and sustainability.
“Labour is 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 (last night) because that appointment has to be got 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.”
