Organised Labour has refuted President Bola Tinubu’s recent Democracy Day address, in which he claimed that an agreement had been reached on a new national minimum wage. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), led by Acting President Prince Adewale Adeyanju, insists that the negotiations, which concluded on Friday, June 7, did not result in a consensus.
According to Adeyanju, the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage discussions led to two proposals: ₦250,000 suggested by Organised Labour and ₦62,000 proposed by the government alongside the Organised Private Sector (OPS). Neither of these figures was agreed upon as a consensus to be submitted to the President.
This clarification comes in response to President Tinubu’s address, which implied that a resolution had been achieved on the wage discussions, causing confusion and dissatisfaction among Organised Labour members.
Addressing his plans to improve the economy, President Tinubu stated, “In this spirit, we have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with organized labour on a new national minimum wage. We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less.”
President Tinubu also highlighted the government’s cooperative approach in the face of a potential national strike by labour, stating, “In the face of labour’s call for a national strike, we did not seek to oppress or crack down on the workers as a dictatorial government would have done. We chose the path of cooperation over conflict.”
“No one was arrested or threatened. Instead, the labour leadership was invited to break bread and negotiate toward a good-faith resolution. Reasoned discussion and principled compromise are hallmarks of democracy. These themes shall continue to animate my policies and interaction with the constituent parts of our political economy,” the President added.
The NLC’s statement challenges these assertions, maintaining that no final agreement on the national minimum wage has been reached.
