Minimum wage: No figure is sacrosanct, There’s always room for adjustments– NLC

Organised labour says it is not fixated on any figure for the minimum wage. 

The tripartite committee on minimum wage ended its deliberations last week, submitting two figures to President Bola Tinubu for consideration as the new minimum wage.

While the government and the organised private sector are proposing N62,000, organised labour is demanding N250,000 as the new minimum wage.

However, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, who was a guest on Channels Televisionon Friday, said no figure is sacrosanct as there is always room for adjustments as labour is not fixated on any figure.

“What we said is that for us when we give figures, there is always a room to meander, there is always a room for us to do some adjustment here and there. So, there is no figure that is sacrosanct, there is no figure that is cast in stone that both parties will be fixated on it. One of the reasons that we went on industrial action the last time was because when it got to N60,000, they told us that a kobo cannot even join the N60,000, that they cannot even add one naira to it.

So that was one of the reasons that led to that industrial action beyond the fact that there were also delays.”

President Tinubu is expected to send an executive bill to the National Assembly for legislative action.