Mr. Festus Osifo, President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), hinted that the eagerly anticipated new minimum wage might not be unveiled on May 1.
Osifo conveyed this information during a discussion with journalists in Abuja yesterday. He stated, “The negotiations by the Tripartite Committee are still ongoing. If you remember, the TUC earlier submitted N447,000 as the new minimum wage, but we have harmonized our figure with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). It is now N615,000. Regarding the timing for the new minimum wage, the committee is still working. So, certainly, May 1 will not work for the pronouncement of the new minimum wage. Except if the federal government wants to pay the minimum wage of N500,000 to workers.”
He also mentioned that the N615,000 demanded by organized labor is not fixed. “The government also has its markup, and so conversations and negotiations will start and end somewhere,” he added.
Osifo emphasized that before organized labor settled on that figure, a thorough study was conducted. “If you look at the N615,000, you will think that the amount is right, but at about the time we did that computation, a dollar was about N1,700. I am hopeful that the committee will meet after May 1,” he concluded. [NAN]
