The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero has alleged that an agreement has not been reached on the new minimum wage after the meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He stated that Labour’s demand for N250,000 minimum wage and the government offer for N62,000 still remains standing on both sides.
He highlighted that the President spoke on the issue of financial challenges, attributing them to restrictions on deregulating petrol (PMS) due to opposition from labor unions. He stated further that the President also pointed out that neighboring West African countries have higher PMS prices and they rely on smuggled Nigerian petrol. He noted that despite all these arguments from the President, the labor representatives remained firm in their stance, insisting on a minimum wage of N250,000, which they argued is still insufficient given the current economic conditions.
He said in an interview with Channels TV From 14:56, ”We maintained our position on the quantum of what is paid to the inflationary trend. And comparatively the wage even in 1980s that was N125 has more value than the N60,000 that is being proposed today. We have all this analysis to Mr President and what N60,000 can only buy now. After all those analysis, Mr President was of the view that the issue is fund raising.
He said Labour did not allow him to totally deregulate PMS and he doesn’t know where to get the money. He gave us comparative analysis of what PMS is selling all over West African and that it is higher than our price here. And that these countries are even depending on the PMS smuggled from Nigeria. So we looked at other factors as well. But at the end of the meeting, the position of Labour was still N250,000 and that of the government was N62,000. The issue wasn’t resolved. Because we made it clear that even the N250,000 is not even enough and that is not in contention.”….Seë_Morë