President Bola Tinubu will today meet with organised labour in Abuja to further discuss the new national minimum wage for workers.
According to a source privy to the development, the meeting is expected to take place at the Presidential Villa, Abuja
Today’s meeting is the first of its kind between the federal government and the organised after talks on the minimum wage have been on hold since June 7, 2024.
Last month, the Federal Executive Council (FEC ) stepped down the memo on the new minimum wage to allow the President to consult more with state and local government, including the private sector.
During the final stage of negotiations at the tripartite committee, organised labour rejected the government’s offer of N62,000.
The labour leaders have maintained a strong stance of N250,000 after both labour centres, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), shifted their ground from the previous N494,000.
At today’s meeting, Tinubu is expected to take a major decision that will put to rest any concerns about a new minimum wage for workers before an executive bill forwarded to the National Assembly for the 2024 Minimum Wage Act is passed.
In June, the president of TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo, hinted to journalists in Abuja that the new national minimum wage is expected to be finalised by this month’s end or by early August 2024.
The federal government has a history of tumultuous negotiations for minimum wage, with the last one -the 2019 Minimum Wage Act – expiring in April this year. However, the government has assured that payment for the wage will commence in April 2024.
It should be remembered that recently, the Southern Governors’ Forum proposed a decentralised minimum wage negotiations system in which state governments would be allowed to negotiate a wage peculiar to their economic competence, but the development met stiff rejection from organised labour.