Minimum Wage: No figure is sacrosanct, there is always room for adjustment – Organized Labour

Organised labour has stated it is not rigidly attached to any specific figure for the minimum wage.

The tripartite committee on minimum wage concluded its discussions last week, presenting two figures to President Bola Tinubu for consideration.

The government and the organised private sector proposed N62,000, while organised labour demanded N250,000 as the new minimum wage.

However, Festus Osifo, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), mentioned on Channels Television on Friday that no figure is final, and there is always room for negotiation, indicating that labour is open to adjustments.

“What we said is that for us when we give figures, there is always a room to meander, there is always a room for us to do some adjustment here and there. So, there is no figure that is sacrosanct, there is no figure that is cast in stone that both parties will be fixated on it. One of the reasons that we went on industrial action the last time was because when it got to N60,000, they told us that a kobo cannot even join the N60,000, that they cannot even add one naira to it.

So that was one of the reasons that led to that industrial action beyond the fact that there were also delays.”