FG, Labour, OPS continue minimum wage talks today

• OPS optimistic of positive outcome
• Strike over electricity tariff hike begins Monday, minister invites workers

The Tripartite Committee meeting on the new minimum wage will reconvene today, as the Federal Government has extended an invitation to Organised Labour for the continuation of negotiations.

Meanwhile, electricity workers will begin industrial action on Monday, June 3, over the hike in electricity tariff, even as the Minister of Power has invited the stakeholders for talks the same day.

A letter signed by the secretary of the committee, Ekpo Nta, was sent to the presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).

The meeting will be the seventh in the series by the committee, as parties try to agree on what should be the new minimum wage.

The last meeting on Tuesday was deadlocked as Organised Labour rejected the N60,000 the Federal Government offered.

However, the committee’s Labour representatives adjusted their demands downward from N497,000 to N494,000.
Labour unions and the Federal Government have been negotiating a new minimum wage for months, with the former giving an ultimatum of May 31.

Labour had initially demanded N615,000 as a minimum wage but has reduced it twice – now at N494,000. The government and the Organised Private Sector (OPS) had initially proposed N48,000 and N54,000, which the Labour also rejected.

During a meeting of the committee on minimum wage on Tuesday, Labour rejected the Federal Government’s new minimum wage proposal of N60,000.

As the tripartite committee negotiating for a new minimum wage reconvenes today for the seventh time, OPS has called on all parties for a collective bargain and hoped that an agreement is finally reached today, which is the last day of the deadline given by Organised Labour for the Federal Government to agree on the new minimum wage.

The spokesperson for OPS in the tripartite committee, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said whatever is agreed on today should be passed to President Bola Tinubu, who has the final say and powers to make pronouncement on a new national minimum wage since the committee’s job was to recommend.

“We hope agreement will be reached on Friday (today). The job of the tripartite committee is to make recommendations to President Tinubu. Government and OPS have recommended N60,000 and Labour N494,000. It is the chairman’s job to deliver the recommendations and for the President to make the pronouncement. The committee is to recommend, the president has the final say,” he said.

Confirming that they would attend today’s meeting, Labour representatives, Joe Ajaero (NLC) and Festus Osifo (TUC) said the Federal Government was unserious about the negotiation process and not considerate of the plight of Nigerian workers.

They said, “We cannot continue negotiating forever. It is the responsibility of the government to live up to its promise of a living wage. President Tinubu has promised Nigerian workers a living wage and anybody that speaks to the contrary sabotages the President.”

“Government must show seriousness and commitment, especially to the fact that they are discussing something that is life and death, because if you do not pay a worker that means you are starving him or her. You cannot be talking about productivity when you are not paying workers well or when the person has not eaten. That is an insult and insensitivity.”

Labour had on May Day threatened to shut down the nation’s economy if the negotiation of the national minimum wage was not concluded by the end of May.

Meanwhile, findings by The Guardian indicate that a nationwide strike will begin next Monday over the hike in electricity tariff.

The Guardian gathered that workers are already mobilising for a strike, as all government workers across the federation are expected to remain at home.

A notice was given to the Federal Government for immediate reversal of the hike in electricity tariff and the immediate cessation of segregating electricity consumers into arbitrary bands.

The reversal, according to Labour, has not happened.

Earlier in May, the NLC and TUC had occupied offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and those of the Electricity Distribution (DisCos) nationwide over their failure to comply with and reverse the electricity tariff hike.

They expressed grave concerns regarding the recent announcement of an astronomical hike in electricity tariff across the nation from N65/Kwh to N225/Kwh by NERC.

To avert the strike, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has invited labour to a meeting on Monday.

One of the Labour leaders in the electricity sector confirmed this to The Guardian but added that the strike would hold.