The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has refuted President Bola Tinubu’s assertion that an agreement on a new national minimum wage has been reached. This rebuttal follows Tinubu’s Democracy Day broadcast, where he claimed a consensus had been achieved between the Federal Government and organized labour.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has refuted President Bola Tinubu’s assertion that an agreement on a new national minimum wage has been reached.
This rebuttal follows Tinubu’s Democracy Day broadcast, where he claimed a consensus had been achieved between the Federal Government and organized labour.
In his national address to mark Democracy Day on Wednesday, Tinubu announced that an executive bill would soon be sent to the National Assembly to formalize the new minimum wage agreement. He emphasized his administration’s preference for democratic dialogue over dictatorial measures in addressing labour union demands.
However, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, acting President of the NLC, issued a statement on Wednesday clarifying that no agreement had been reached by the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage as of the conclusion of negotiations on Friday, June 7, 2024. Adeyanju pointed out that two figures, ₦250,000 from Organized Labour and ₦62,000 from the government and Organized Private Sector, had been proposed and were to be submitted to the President.
Adeyanju stated, “We reiterate that it will be extremely difficult for Nigerian workers to accept any national minimum wage figure that approximates a starvation wage. We cannot be working and yet remain in abject poverty.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) attentively listened to the Democracy Day Presidential address delivered by His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, especially concerning the ongoing National Minimum Wage negotiations.
While the President may have accurately recounted parts of our democratic journey’s history, it is evident that he has been misinformed regarding the outcome of the wage negotiation process.”
He continued, “The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the President would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the federal government and the employers on the base figure for a National Minimum Wage nor on its other components.
We are therefore surprised at the submission of Mr. President over a supposed agreement. We believe that he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC.”
Adeyanju also highlighted that the President’s advisers may have misled him about the status of the negotiations and the conditions under which they were conducted, noting that labour leaders were intimidated and harassed during the process.
He stated, “President’s advisers obviously did not tell him the truth that the leaders of the trade unions were intimidated and harassed. It is therefore important that Mr. President understands that we were threatened severally by his operatives perhaps without his consent.”
He also addressed the broader economic challenges, acknowledging Tinubu’s commitment to supporting the citizens but underscoring the need for fair compensation.
Tinubu, in his broadcast, had expressed his intent to fix the economy to ensure everyone has access to economic opportunity, fair pay, and compensation for their labour.
“In this spirit, we have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with organized labour on a new national minimum wage. We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less,” Tinubu had said.
Despite Tinubu’s claims, Adeyanju reaffirmed that the NLC remains steadfast in its demand for a fair minimum wage and called for transparency in the negotiation process to ensure that the interests of Nigerian workers are adequately represented and protected.
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