FG, Labour Fail To Reach Agreement On New Minimum Wage

 The Federal Government and Organised
Labour again failed to reach an agreement on
the full implementation of the new minimum
wage after it resumed negotiations on the
consequential adjustment of salaries for
workers on Thursday.
After about eight hours meeting that began at
5pm and ended at 2am on Thursday, Minister
of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige,
told journalists that both parties have agreed
to adjourn the meeting to 7pm today.
Organised Labour was led into Wednesday’s
meeting by the President of the Nigeria
Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba,
President of the Trade Union Congress,
Comrade Quadri Olaleye, former president of
TUC, Bobboi Kaigama, NLC Deputy President,
Comrade Amaechi Asogwuni, Chairman Joint
National Public Service Negotiating Council,
Simon Achaver, NLC’s General Secretary,
Emmanuel Ugbaoja, JNPSNC Secretary, Alade
Lawal, President of Nigeria Union of Local
Government Employees, Ibrahim Khaleel, and
JNPSNC member, Lawrence Amaechi.
The government team had Head of Service of
the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi- Esan,
Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris
Ngige, Minister of State and Employment,
Festus Keyamo and the Acting Chairman,
National Salaries Income and Wages
Commission, Ekpo Nta n other government
officials.
The minister said that both parties finally
agreed on so many areas which they had
earlier failed to agree on before calling for the
adjournment of the meeting.
He said that assignments have been given to
some people on both sides, with the
committee expecting a feedback from them.
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Like on Tuesday, the meeting broke into
sessions twice when the government and
labour teams had to leave the general session
to meet separately before continuing with the
joint session.
On Tuesday, both the federal government and
organised labour had shifted ground from their
initial positions. The government had agreed
to an increase of 17 percent for workers on
levels 7 – 9. While it offered 15 percent
increase to workers on levels 10 -14 and 12
percent increase to workers on levels 15-17.
Before the new offer, government had said
that it could only offer 6.5 percent increase
for workers on levels 15-17 and 11 percent
increase for workers on levels 15-17. While
the leadership of organised labour demanded
for 25 percent for workers on levels 7- 14 and
20 percent for workers on levels 15-17 during
Tuesday’s meeting.
On Wednesday, both parties failed to disclosed
details of the areas they had agreed on to
journalists.
The minister said: “As you can see, we met
and broke into committees, we come back, we
finally agreed on so many areas which hitherto
we could not agree on and we are adjourning
the meeting. We have given assignments to
some people on both sides and we will go and
do the work and get back to us. The work
involved is enormous. We are giving them the
entire day to get back to us.
“Issues of money and wage adjustments as
per different wage structures; we have about
12 wage structures presently in Nigeria which
you know of. We don’t want to make mistakes
that could be fatal and thereby put the whole
exercise we have done in jeopardy.
“Therefore, we have consensually agreed that
we reconvene this meeting at 7pm today. This
will enable those that we have given
assignments to complete the assignments and
bring them back to us.
“We are very okay with the meeting. It is
moving on smoothly and as you can see from
here there is conviviality, it is very cordial,
nobody is fighting. We disagreed about some
ares but we have agreed back. That is the
important thing. Let the work continue.”
NLC President, Wabba said that some
progress had been made but added that an
agreement he not been reached.
He aid: “It is the Collective Bargaining Process
that has actually lasted this long. Some
progress has been made but we have not
been able to conclude and then have a
collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and
some committees need to do some
computation. You can see that they have
worked up to early hours of today. That is in
the true spirit of collective bargaining. It is
give no take and that is what we are trying to
do to get the whole process concluded and
put very thing behind all of us.
“In collective bargaining, if a meeting is
adjourned, you should know that that is not
our practice. Our practice is that until we are
able to conclude the issues and we are able
to inform them (Nigerians)
appropriately but not midway when we are
making progress. We cannot abruptly disrupt
the process. At the appropriate time we
should be able to give details.
“We cannot speak on the percentage until we
finish the negotiation. The matters under
consideration are implementation and
consequential adjustment.
“That is mere speculation. We should work on
the basis of information that is credible.”