TUC Reveals Amount Organized Labour Is Demanding From Government As New Minimum Wage. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has disclosed that organized labor has reached a consensus to demand ₦615,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers from the federal government.
TUC President, Festus Osifo, made this announcement while addressing journalists on Friday in Abuja, noting that this amount aligns with the position of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Osifo explained that the initial demand of ₦447,000 was discarded after discussions with the NLC, resulting in the harmonized figure of ₦615,000.
However, he expressed skepticism about the government announcing a new minimum wage on May 1st due to ongoing negotiations with the Tripartite Committee.
He stated, “The negotiations by the Tripartite Committee are still ongoing. If you remember, the TUC earlier submitted ₦447,000 as the new minimum wage, but we have harmonized our figure with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
It is now ₦615,000. Regarding the timing for the new minimum wage, the committee is still working.”
Osifo emphasized that May 1st would not be feasible for announcing the new minimum wage unless the government decided to pay ₦500,000 instead.
He acknowledged that while the government might not agree to the ₦615,000 demand, negotiations would proceed from that point.
He further noted, “The government also has its markup, and so conversations and negotiations will start and end somewhere.
If you look at the ₦615,000, you will think that the amount is right, but at about the time we did that computation, a dollar was about ₦1,700. I am hopeful that the committee will meet after May 1.”
The federal government had established a 37-member tripartite committee on minimum wage to engage in discussions and negotiations to determine a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.