The Federal Government has increased its offer of a new national minimum wage to N62,000, while organised labour has reduced its demand from N494,000 to N250,000.
This came after several hours of meeting on Friday, bringing to an end the deliberations on the new minimum wage by the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government after several months.
The recommendations will be forwarded to President Tinubu, who is expected to send an executive bill to the National Assembly for legislative action.
A source from the labour hinted at newsmen after the meeting, which he described as embarrassing and a waste of time.
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“After wasting our time, they finally came up with the offer of N62,000, which was backed by the private sector. Labour also reduced ours to N250,000. This is embarrassing.”
It was earlier gathered that the Federal Government was willing to accept N65,000 as the new minimum wage, but governors and the organised private sector were against paying as much as N60,000.
The governors and organised private sector 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 above N57,000. But they later agreed to settle for N62,000.
The 36 state governors who make up the Nigeria Governors’ Forum have said that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government is not sustainable and cannot fly.
A statement by the Acting Director, Media Affairs and Public Relations, of the Forum, Mrs. Halima Ahmed, noted that if allowed to fly, many states will use all their monthly allocations from the federation account to pay workers’ salaries.
The governors appealed to members of the tripartite committee to agree on a minimum wage that would be fair and sustainable.
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The statement reads in part, “The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is in agreement that a new minimum wage is due. The Forum also sympathises with labour unions in their push for higher wages.
“However, the Forum urges all parties to consider the fact that the minimum wage negotiations also involve consequential adjustments across all cadres, including pensioners.
“The NGF cautions parties in this important discussion to look beyond just signing a document for the sake of it; any agreement to be signed should be sustainable and realistic.
“All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and cannot fly. It will simply mean that many states will spend all their FAAC allocations on just paying salaries with nothing left for development purposes.
“In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the country’s collective interest, including workers.
