Minimum wage: Labour says Govt not serious, taking workers for a ride

 

• FG, labour meeting ends in deadlock

 

BY OUR EDITOR

Meeting between the Federal Government and the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council over the N30,000 new national minimum wage ended in a deadlock, as both parties refused to shift grounds.

A source in the labour movement told THE PUNCH after the meeting held Monday that the representatives of government were not serious.

Although President Buhari had signed the new minimum wage into law on April 18, 2019, negotiations between the Federal Government and the JNPSNC on its implementation had earlier broken down due to unresolved irreconcilable differences in their proposals.

The last negotiation which was supposed to hold on September 4, was suspended last Tuesday and rescheduled for Monday September 16, at the instance of the officials.

While the Federal Government proposed 9.5 per cent salary increase for employees on grade levels 07 to 14 and five per cent for those on grade levels 15 to 17, the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria were demanding 30 per cent increase for officers on grade levels 07 to 14 and 25 per cent increase for grade levels 15 to 17.

A labour source said, “We have discovered that the government is not serious at all; a mandate was given to the government side to take the position of labour and government’s team to President Muhammadu Buhari and report back at the meeting.

“But we discovered that they didn’t do it; they are just taking us for a ride. So, we are reporting that the meeting was deadlocked and our next line of action will be to report to our parent unions.”