Organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress Union (TUC) have again stormed out of the minimum wage negotiations, rejecting the Federal Government’s new proposal of N60,000 as the minimum take-home pay for workers in the country.

At the meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, the federal government moved N3,000 ahead from its last offer of N57,000 to N60,000 while Labour went down with N3,000 from its last proposal of N497,000 at the last tripartite meeting.

A source, who was at the meeting but not authorised to speak, disclosed that Labour had to walk out of the meeting as the government seemed to be unserious about the new minimum wage for workers.

According to him, since all that government was able to come up with was to add just N3,000 to its last offer which was still very far from Labour’s proposal, there was no need to waste time at such a meeting.

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He said: “Federal government moved to N60,000 from N57,000 and we moved from N497,000 to N494,000.

“Our people walked out because of the apparent unseriousness of the government.”

A member of the union who spoke to newsmen before the commencement of the meeting noted that Labour would only go lower if the government went higher on its demands.

The source said: “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 Star