President Bola Tinubu’s Federal Government would consider the Trade Union Congress (minimum) ‘s wage proposals.
After meeting with the TUC at the State House, Abuja, the current administration said this, according to Naija News.
After a three-hour discussion with the TUC, Federal Government spokesperson Dele Alake told State House media that the administration will consider the requests’ feasibility.
He stated that President Bola Tinubu will form a tripartite committee with states, organised labour, and the commercial sector to investigate the dynamics of the minimum wage increase to reach an agreement.
Alake remarked, “Well, as you all know, we had this reconvened meeting today, as we promised you a few days ago when we had the initial meeting with the Labour movement.
“We stated we will reassemble today to keep the dialogue on to alleviate the stress in the country due to subsidy withdrawal, which is a fact.
We are pleased to inform Nigerians that this interaction has been productive.
We considered the TUC’s demands from today’s conference and will present them to Mr. President for his consideration.
We can tell Nigerians that many of the demands are feasible. We must examine the numbers.
“Then, we have requested the TUC to allow us to consult exhaustively and reassemble on Tuesday to properly look at the numbers, viability, and practicability of all the proposals that have been put to us.
“Now, the most essential and top priority on the list, which the government is also looking at very carefully and the PresidentPresident has indicated earlier, is the minimum wage which the Labour movement has demanded is the consequence impact of this subsidy elimination.
The federal government, state, organised labour, and business sector will likely form a tripartite commission under Mr. President.
“Now, this is a tripartite setup; a committee will evaluate all the dynamics of a pay hike in percentages, numbers, and categories that would be affected.
We should have concrete issues to give to the world by Tuesday when we meet with the TUC again.
“The most important thing today is that we are making appreciable progress with Labour.”
“There is a list, but we are not going to be listing all of them now,” the official responded when asked to outline the demands. The minimum wage rise is crucial, and labour claims that removing this reduces employees’ purchasing power since fuel prices rise.
That reduces the average worker’s purchasing power. Increasing worker purchasing power is the next priority. So that’s our first focus.
Tax holidays are another benefit for some workers. The minimum wage matters most.”
Alake said the team is not talking with the NLC but trying to reach the congress.
He added that the FG representatives will meet with the PresidentPresident to finalise the NLC’s minimum wage review or status quo demand.
He stated that the FG is trying to reach the NLC since the parties agreed to reassemble on Tuesday, 24 hours before the NLC’s strike.
Alake stated: “No. Not us. but we are attempting NLC. We agreed to meet here, but this game has dynamics. Maybe they’re meeting with their executives and can’t meet with us, or they want to postpone or have yet to state their TUC demands.
We cannot speculate on their absence. But we’re not isolating them—we’re reaching out.”
Alake denied that the meeting covered Bayo Onanuga’s claim that NLC was working for Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the just-concluded elections. It has no bearing on worker welfare.
“Our conversation focused on worker welfare and how to mitigate the impact of subsidy elimination. Not political.”
Festus Osifo, TUC President, stated that the union submitted its demands to the government after consulting its members.
He suggested that the Federal Government lower fuel prices during the social discourse.
Osifo said the union is hopeful since the Federal Government pledged to evaluate their demands, including the minimum wage.
He said, “As will recall, we were all here on Wednesday last week, and after the meeting, the government offered us their viewpoint and told us the reason why they did what they did, but on our part, we did not agree with them. They brought various palliatives to us at the meeting, but we informed them we would call our organs instead.
“So, we went back, called the NEC of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria on Friday, and during the NEC meeting, the TUC decided that because we already told the government as at Wednesday that we’re taking their demands back, we want to go and look at them because they asked us for our demands, we said we didn’t have the mandate to discuss the mandates as at then.
They also told us that when they brought the items to us on Wednesday, we told them we were going back to our principals, so they also need to check base with Mr. President so we can resume this meeting on Tuesday. We demanded that they revert to the pump price for good faith and social engagement while conversations continue.
