The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has denied reaching any agreement with President Bola Tinubu on a new national minimum wage.
During his Democracy Day address, President Tinubu claimed that a consensus had been reached between the Federal Government and organized labour on the new minimum wage. He announced that an executive bill would soon be sent to the National Assembly to formalize this agreement.
However, acting NLC President Prince Adewale Adeyanju quickly refuted this claim, stating that no such agreement was reached by the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage as of the conclusion of negotiations on Friday, June 7, 2024.
Adeyanju clarified that two figures had been proposed: N250,000 by organized labour and N62,000 by the government and the Organised Private Sector, which were to be submitted to the President for consideration.
“The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the President would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the federal government and the employers on the base figure for a National Minimum Wage nor on its other components,” Adeyanju said in a statement made available to journalists.
He emphasized that the NLC’s demand remains N250,000 and that they have not received any compelling reasons to alter this position, which they consider a significant concession by Nigerian workers during the negotiation process.
Adeyanju expressed surprise at the President’s claim of a supposed agreement, suggesting that President Tinubu might have been misled. “We believe that he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC.
There was none and it is important that we let the President, Nigerians, and other national stakeholders understand this immediately to avoid a mix-up in the ongoing conversation around the national minimum wage,” he added.
