Labour rejects FG’s fresh N60,000 minimum wage offer, insists on N494,000

The Federal Government has added a sum of N3,000 to its initially proposed N57,000 minimum wage, making it the sum of N60,000 proposed on Tuesday during a meeting of the tripartite committee on minimum wage in Abuja.

Organised labour, comprising the Trade Union Congress and the Nigeria Labour Congress, also went down by N3,000 from its last proposal of N497,000 during the last minimum wage meeting.

According to a source who gave the breakdown at the Tuesday meeting, the amount proposed by the government did not go down well with labour leaders.

A member of the union who spoke to our correspondent before the meeting started noted that organised labour would only go lower if the government went higher on its demands.

“This is simply a case of if they go higher, we will go lower. They need to propose something reasonable for us to propose something lower too. There is no two-way about it.

“Also, we have a way of meeting as members of the Labour before each committee meeting. This will help us to take a uniform stand by the time we get to the meeting front.

“So as long as the government is ready to present something reasonable, we will meet them in the middle,” the labour leader said.