President Bola Tinubu has held consultations with Organised Labour in furtherance of his engagements with critical stakeholders toward arriving at a new national minimum wage.
The Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday, July 11, 2024.
“The meeting was a conversation between a father and his children and not a negotiation on the new national minimum wage,” Onyejeocha said.
Also speaking, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said there was no discussion in terms of what the new national minimum wage would be, adding that the status quo remained.
Ajaero said: “We didn’t discuss figures.
“The status quo remains, the Federal Government stands on N62,000 while labour is sticking to N250,000.
“We will be back after one week to continue the discussion.”
The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, further disclosed that labour presented the issues bothering Nigerians to Tinubu as part of his consultations toward arriving at a new minimum wage.
Osifo said the meeting was an opportunity for labour to let the president know how the economic difficulties and the value of the naira have affected the prices of goods in the market.
The TUC boss added: “We are all aware of what is happening in the country; how the high cost of living has impacted the ordinary Nigerians and workers.
“So, it was necessary to let the president know the exact situation of things in the country.”
