Governors of the 36 states of the federation have rejected the N60,000 minimum wage earlier proposed by the federal government.
The Director, Media and Public Affairs of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Hajiya Halimah Salihu Ahmed disclosed this in a statement yesterday.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had on Monday embarked on indefinite strike action after rejecting the federal government’s N60,000 offer as minimum wage.
But they later announced that they would relax the strike action for one week to give room for further negotiations with the federal government, which had promised to increase the wage from N60,000.
However, the governors said the N60,000 wage is not realistic and unsustainable, arguing that if implemented, it would force some states in the country to be borrowing to pay workers’ salaries.
The statement reads in part, “The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is in agreement that a new minimum wage is due. The Forum also sympathises with labour unions in their push for higher wages.
“However, the Forum urges all parties to consider the fact that the minimum wage negotiations also involve consequential adjustments across all cadres, including pensioners.
“The NGF cautions parties in this important discussion to look beyond just signing a document for the sake of it; any agreement to be signed should be sustainable and realistic.
All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and cannot fly. It will simply mean that many states will spend all their FAAC allocations on just paying salaries with nothing left for development purposes.
“In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the collective interest of the country, including workers.
“We appeal that all parties involved, especially the labour unions, consider all the socioeconomic variables and settle for an agreement that is sustainable, durable, and fair to all other segments of the society who have legitimate claim to public resources.”
Labour pegs demand at N250,000 as govt recommends N62,000
Meanwhile, members of the organised labour have brought their demand to the sum of N250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers while the government also raised its initial amount of N60,000 by N2,000 making N62,000 in total.
President of TUC, Festus Osifo, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja Friday night at Nicon Luxury Hotel, venue of the National Minimum Wage Tripartite committee meeting after a 4-hour marathon closed door meeting.
Osifo said the two labour centres have not agreed with both the government and the members of the Organised Private Sector on the new offer, arguing that they would continue to push for a wage that would stand the test of time in the country.
“As we are now, the Organised Private Sector and the government side, have recommended N62,000 to be minimum wage but for us, from Labour, we felt that with the current economic hardship and with the difficulty in the land, the sum of N250,000 should be the what should be okay as the minimum wage”, he said.
Also speaking after the meeting, Governor Hope Uzodinma, who was accompanied by his Kwara State counterpart, said there is no longer hostility among members of the committee and that the tension in the country has been eased, insisting that the committee would soon produce a joint report that would be presented to the president.
However, the NLC earlier lambasted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, for terming Monday’s nationwide strike as “treasonable felony and economic sabotage”
