Nigeria Labour Unions may go on strike on Tuesday over minimum wage

The NLC on Wednesday rejected N22,500 which state governors adopted as the minimum wage

Nigeria Labour Unions may go on strike on Tuesday over minimum wage

As it stands now, the federal government and the organised labour have not agreed on the minimum wage. This is likely to force the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) go on indefinite strike as scheduled on Tuesday, November 6th.

The NLC on Wednesday rejected N22,500 which state governors adopted as the minimum wage their states can pay. The governors after a meeting on Tuesday said they could pay only N22, 500 as against N30, 000 insisted upon by the labour unions.

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There are discrepancies between the understanding of the government and the unions of a resolution of a tripartite meeting held to resolve the minimum wage quagmire recently. While the government interpreted the resolution to mean N20, 000 for minimum wage, the NLC interpreted the same resolution to mean N30, 000 for the minimum wage.

The NLC and other labour unions are insisting they had agreed with the government to accept N30,000 minimum wage after extensive deliberations.

The position of the state govenrors appears to have angered the NLC whose president, Ayuba Wabba, on Wednesday told journalists that workers would now demands N66,500 minimum wage.

“The demand of Organised Labour is not N30,000; our demand is N66,500,” Mr Wabba said at the conference.

The NLC and other labour unions had earlier threatened to commence strike by November 6 if the government does not accept the N30,000 minimum wage.

“We wish to reiterate our position adopted at our National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of 23 rd October, 2018 that any figure below N30,000 will not be accepted by us.

“We call on our members to continue to mobilise in preparation for the commencement of an indefinite strike on the 6th of November, 2018, if by then necessary steps have not been taken to adopt the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee,” he said.