For the second day running, the ongoing tripartite negotiation on the new national minimum wage involving the Federal Government, organized labour and the Organised Private Sector, OPS, yesterday ended in another stalemate as government and private sector employers made minimal adjustments to their earlier offers.
This came as none of the six governors who are members of the committee attended the meeting yesterday.
But Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, was present at the meeting, which has been adjourned to Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
While organised labour which had earlier yesterday brought down its wage demand from N615,000 to N500, 000, and later N497,000, OPS increased its last week’s offer of N54,000 to N57,000.
The government negotiating team had earlier remained adamant, but had to take a short break to consult. It returned from the short break to increase its offer to N57,000 to match OPS’ offer. The government’s negotiating team had on Tuesday, offered to pay a minimum wage of N54,000.
Vanguard gathered that the government team added N3,000 to its earlier offer to match the OPS offer after members of the team returned from a short break to consult.
Recall that OPS had earlier upped its offer to N57,000 from the initial N54,000 it presented during last week’s meeting.
Vanguard sources said the labour negotiating team immediately rejected the fresh offers from both the government and its OPS counterpart, saying they were not ready to negotiate.
“Government has agreed that NLC is using evidence-based presentation. But they argue that eight states are not paying or not fully implementing the 2019 minimum wage.
‘’Government is talking of non-availability of funds. They are also talking about the inability of the private sector to pay.
“Labour has been requested to shift ground in response to the government’s. We complied and came down to N500, 000.
“Imo State governor has stepped in. He is not a member of the committee but it is good that there is at least a governor, as the six governors in the committee have been regularly absent,’’ a source told Vanguard yesterday.
