Tripartite committee to reach minimum wage today — Uzodimma

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, says the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage will arrive at a figure by today (Friday).

Uzodimma, who is the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), stated this after the committee’s five-hour meeting on Thursday.

Addressing the press after the meeting, Uzodimma said the committee would arrive at a figure when the committee reconvenes by 11am on Friday.

On the rumours making the rounds that a figure of N105,000 has been agreed, the governor said no such decision has been reached but assured workers in the country that the figure agreed on the new minimum wage would be made known after Friday’s meeting.

The committee also previously met on Wednesday at the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja, the venue of the meeting.

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 (NLC), Joe Ajaero; and his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo; were in attendance.

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.