President Bola Tinubu has approved N70,000 as the new minimum wage for workers in the country, adding that the FG will find ways to assist states and private sector organizations to pay the newly approved N70,000 national minimum wage.
Tinubu announced the minimum wage during a meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the presidential villa on Thursday.
Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
Joe Ajaero, NLC president and Festus Osifo, president of the TUC, were at the meeting.
Tinubu also pledged to review the country’s minimum wage every three years up from five years.
According to the statement, the President said he would use his discretionary power to resolve the non-payment of four months’ salaries of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, NASU.
“President Bola Tinubu has approved N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers with a promise to review the national minimum wage law every three years.
“President Tinubu also promised to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage.
“The Labour leaders applauded President Tinubu for the fatherly gesture as the President also promised to use his discretionary powers meet the demands of university unions demanding unpaid 4 months salaries,” the statement said.
Recall that there has been an impasse between the Federal Government and workers over a new minimum wage.
The Federal Government had earlier insisted on a N62,000 minimum wage while organized labor proposed N250,000.
Meanwhile, speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Nkiru Onyejeocha, minister of state for labour, said Tinubu and the labour leaders agreed that the time limit for the review of the minimum wage should be reduced to three years.
On his part, Ajaero said the N70,000 offer was accepted because of the provision that the minimum wage will be reviewed every three years. “We are taking this with mixed feelings because of the situation of the economy,” the NLC president said.
The TUC president said the labour leaders appealed to the president to intervene in the withheld salaries controversy of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU).
“The Labour leaders applauded President Tinubu for the fatherly gesture as the President also promised to use his discretionary powers meet the demands of university unions demanding unpaid 4 months salaries,” the statement said.
Recall that there has been an impasse between the Federal Government and workers over a new minimum wage.
The Federal Government had earlier insisted on a N62,000 minimum wage while organized labor proposed N250,000.
BACKGROUND
Over the past few months, the federal and state governments, organised labour, and the private sector have been negotiating a new minimum wage.
Initially, organised labour proposed N615,500 and N494,000 as the new national minimum wage, citing inflation and the prevailing economic hardship.
The federal government proposed N62,000, which was rejected by organised labour, but the labour unions had insisted on N250,000 as the living wage.
The federal government asked the labour unions to demand a more realistic and sustainable minimum wage.
On June 7, governors under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) said the N60,000 minimum wage for workers is not sustainable.
On June 10, the tripartite committee submitted its report to George Akume, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF).
