Minimum wage negotiations to begin last quarter of 2023, says NLC

Minimum wage negotiations between organised labour, Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), and the Federal Government will resume in the last quarter of this year.

General Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Emmanuel Ugboaja, who disclosed this, yesterday, at the ongoing International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, said raising the national wage floor, which is due next year in February, will not be part of forthcoming discussions.

He said: “When labour meets the Federal Government’s negotiation team on Monday, June 19, 2023, the minimum wage will not be on the table. The current minimum wage will expire in February, next year. Normally, by this time, labour should table its proposal on what the new national wage will be, by the last quarter of this year, so that we can reach an understanding.”

The NLC scribe blamed governors for debasing the national minimum wage by declining to implement the law. He said: “Our governors have made a mockery of what a national minimum wage ought to be, by reducing it to their own definition of what they are willing to pay workers. Governors have reduced salary payment to a privilege. No. That cannot be.

“They pay workers for services rendered; they are not dashing out money. Salary payment ensures societies grow. Therefore, ignorance is the bane of the Nigerian minimum wage implementation.”