The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has urged stakeholders not to wait until the five-year validity period of the minimum wage expires before negotiating a new living wage.
Edun made this statement during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, saying that in a democratic system, the wage negotiation process is a very important one.
He noted that the wage negotiation by law should be changed quinquennially, adding that the country shouldn’t have to wait five years every time to set a new wage scale.
The minister added that the minimum wage sets a baseline for all sectors, including federal, state, and local governments, as well as the private sector and small businesses.
Edun stated: “In a democracy, a very important process is the wage negotiation process—the right of unions to get together and to bargain collectively. That process is enshrined in law. It’s an ongoing and arduous process that is complex and difficult one but with goodwill on all sides, we will come to a landing that benefits all Nigerians.
“It is difficult because whilst the worker deserves his wage and given what’s going on, they deserve a change, and in fact, by law every five years, or maybe, maybe it shouldn’t, we shouldn’t have to wait five years every time to set a new wage scale. The fact is that by law is a minimum wage.
“So it’s not a wage, you’re not setting a wage for government, federal government workers, for example, in the Federation, you’re setting the minimum figure that states must pay, the local governments must pay, that the private sector must pay, that small businesses must pay to the extent they have the requisite number of workers, the customer, the small scale businesses, they would have to pay that and it is a fixed fee or not a scale.
“So there are elements of how we have set the minimum wage in the past, particularly what they call the consequential adjustments, which people what labour is asking for today would be affordable across the board. And as I see, we have to focus not on the wealthiest payer. We have to focus on the fact that once it’s enshrined in law, everybody that falls into the category of having to pay the minimum wage must pay it and, so therefore, the affordability has to be taken into account; and also, we probably have to take into account the fact that there are other ways of profiting supporting cost of living of workers other than that particular wage skill. It’s an ongoing conversation.
“I don’t want to in any way prejudice the talks that are going on except to say that with goodwill on all sides, we will reach a point which is beneficial to Nigerians and also allows the economy to function to the benefit of all.”
The Organised labour declared a nationwide strike over a proposed new minimum wage after a meeting between the tripartite of Labour, Organised Private Sector (OPS) and the Federal Government failed to reach an agreement on a new minimum wage and the reversal of the recent hike in electricity tariffs.
Meanwhile, the federal government had appealed to organised labour to reconsider its planned indefinite strike set to commence today, Monday, June 3.
While the unions are pushing for a new minimum wage of N494,000, the Nigerian government is offering N60,000.
The FG, through the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, says the sum of N494,000 national minimum wage being demanded by organised labour, which cumulatively amounts to the sum of N9.5 trillion, is capable of destabilising the economy and jeopardising the welfare of over 200 million Nigerians.
In a last-minute effort to avert the strike, leaders of the National Assembly met with representatives of organised labour yesterday. However, the meeting ended in a deadlock, with labour unions insisting on going ahead with the strike.
