Govt, labour, private sector resume wage talks after strike

The meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage re-convened at the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja on Wednesday to continue negotiations over a new minimum wage for workers in the country.

In attendance were representatives of the Federal Government including the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Minister of Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; representatives of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as well as the Head of Service of the Federation.

On the side of Organised Labour, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero; and his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo; were in attendance.

Although none of the state governors were at the meeting at the moment, the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulateef Shittu, was at the meeting.

It could be recalled that one of the conditions for suspending the strike on Tuesday was that the committee would continue to meet daily for one week until an agreement was reached for a new minimum wage for workers
President Bola Tinubu had on Tuesday directed the committee to speed up the process, compute the figures and send them to him. The President had also said he was committed to a wage above N60,000 while the TUC and the NLC said they weren’t fixated on their N494,000 demand.

The Organised Labour suspended its indefinite strike on Tuesday after reaching an agreement with the Federal Government that negotiations should continue daily, and Wednesday’s meeting was the first after that agreement was signed.