Organised Labour may settle for N100,000 minimum wage as the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage commences daily meetings for five days to reach a consensus.

Multiple sources in the labour movement told The PUNCH on Tuesday that the union leaders were willing to review their demand from N494,000 to N100,000, following the criticism and controversy that trailed their proposal which was considered outrageous and unrealistic.

In a statement by his media aide, Rabiu Ibrahim on Saturday, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, had said the proposed minimum wage would result in an annual expenditure of N9.5tn, a burden he described as untenable for the nation’s finances.

After the labour shut the nation down through a nationwide strike, the Federal Government convened an emergency meeting to find a way out of the impasse.

In a bid to move the negotiation forward, the unions on Tuesday announced the suspension of the industrial action for five days after President Bola Tinubu agreed to pay a national minimum wage higher than N60,000 and the tripartite committee pledged its readiness to convene daily until a new minimum wage is announced.

The President on Tuesday also directed the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to present the cost implications for a new minimum wage within two days.

Speaking with The PUNCH in confidence because Labour had not formally presented its final offer to the tripartite committee, a senior NLC official confirmed that the unions would insist on N100,000 minimum wage.

He said, “Tuesday meeting was essentially to set an agenda and plan how to complete the assignment within the five days.

“The government representatives did not mention a raise in the N60, 000.  They just set the agenda on what to do and how to go about the negotiation. There was no mention of any increment. But labour planned to close the negotiation on N100,000 minimum wage.’’

The organised labour had already vowed to reject any little addition to the N60,000 offer by the tripartite committee on the new minimum wage.

The President of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo, made this known on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

Though the union leader refused to mention a specific amount, he said the new minimum wage must “be equal in purchasing power to the value of N30,000 in 2019 and N18,000 in 2014.”

Culled from PUNCH