The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUN) president, Festus Osifo, says the N615,000 new minimum wage agreed on by the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was based on N1,700 per dollar computation.
The TUC leader said the much-awaited new wage announcement on May 1 might hold.
Osifo, who stated this while speaking with newsmen yesterday in Abuja, said, The negotiation by the Tripartite Committee is still ongoing. If you remember, the TUC earlier submitted N447,000 as the new minimum wage but we have harmonised our figure with the NLC”.
It is now N615,000. Regarding when the new minimum wage, the committee is still working. So, certainly, May 1 will not work for the pronouncement of the new minimum wage except if the federal government wants to pay the minimum wage of N500,000 to workers.
He, however, said the N615,000 demanded by the Organised Labour was not sacrosanct. The Government also has its markup, so conversations and negotiations will start and end somewhere, the TUC leader stated.
Osifo also noted that a proper study was conducted before Organised Labour arrived at that amount.
If you look at the N615,000, you will think that the amount is right; but at about the time we did that computation, a dollar was about N1,700. I am hopeful that the committee will meet after May 1, he said.
Recall that the Federal Government set up a 37-member Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage to continue further negotiations and consultations on the new minimum wage.
The National Minimum Wage Committee is chaired by the former Head of the Federations Civil Service, Bukar Aji. Other members were drawn from the federal and State governments, the private sector, and organised labour.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima said the setting up of the minimum wage review committee is a re-affirmation of President Bola Tinubus desire to motivate the nations workforce, which he describes as the administrations cornerstone.
?Shettima noted that though decisions made to salvage the economy remain inevitable, the Federal Government is not oblivious to the short-term implications, assuring Nigerians of better days ahead.
He urged the committee to be diligent and consult widely in order to arrive at a fair and decent wage that could alleviate the peoples sufferings.
