The Federal Government may be on a collision course with governors, and the private sector for agreeing to pay a minimum wage higher than N60,000.
While the Federal Government may be ready to accept N65,000 as the new minimum wage, governors and the organised private sector were against paying as high as N60,000. They insisted that any figure above N57,000 may not be sustainable.
The major argument by the governors, according to insiders, is that the states would be left with nothing for developmental projects if they accepted to pay a minimum wage above N57,000, as they would have to pay a large chunk of their resources as wages to workers.
Meanwhile, organised labour, comprising of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), had again rejected the offer of the Federal Government to pay N60,000 as a new minimum wage for workers.
Members of the organised labour have brought its demand to the sum of N250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers while the federal 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 .
Both sides were engaged in a 4-hour marathon 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.
“This, we are going to send a report, by forwarding this position to Mr President. You know this committee is to make recommendations to the President, and Mr President will make recommendation to the National Assembly.
“We will keep pushing to ensure that we have a wage that can stand the test of time in Nigeria,” the labour leader, who was flanked by the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma; Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and the chairman of Committee, said.