… Stakeholders To Reconvene
…Strike Put on Hold
Williams Anuku Abuja
The meeting convened by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige to find amicable solutions to the issues of consequential adjustments arising from the new national minimum wage ended in an inconclusive note on Tuesday.
However all the stakeholders involved in the negotiation are expected to reconvene today, Wednesday, to possibly iron out other grey areas that may culminate in averting a proposed strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress which was supposed to start on October 16th.
However the meeting which basically dwelt on the consequential adjustment regarding the N30,000 national minimum wage made some headway as both parties shifted ground on their earlier positions.
At end of the of the meeting which lasted for over 5 hours, government stepped up from 11 percent for grade levels 07 to 14 and 6.5 percent for grade levels 15 to 17 to a new offer of 17 percent for grade levels 07 to 09, 15 percent for workers on grade levels 10 to 14 and 12 percent for grade levels 15 to 17.
Also, the Labour team reviewed their stance from 29 percent to 25 percent for grade levels 07 to 14 and 24 percent to 20 percent for workers on grade levels 15 to 17.
Deputy President of NLC Amaechi Asugwuni said “Negotiation is still ongoing even though we actually thought negotiations will be concluded today but we can’t predict the negotiations, therefore adjournment became necessary to the best if our knowledge the struggle will still continue applies. Tomorrow we will meet by two and that meeting will also determines the fate of that we expect that we will close that meeting positively.
“So far commitment has been shown but we believe that the areas that are still in context are critical therefore government can urge also on their part to see how they can shift ground positively in order to mitigate the agitation ahead”.
Head of service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi said
“We’ve had a very peaceful engagement so far the labour side has discovered that there is just one side of the welfare of workers and both sides made a lot of concessions but we discovered that there are some grey areas that needs to be ironed out. Some documents and information are being sorted out which we are providing and by Grace of God tomo discussions will continue and we believe that we will be able to get everything resolved”.
The meeting is however continuing Today at 2pm at the same venue.
Recall that the first phase of negotiations collapsed due to percentage differences between the two parties, the Federal Government negotiating team and the JNPNC, which is representing labour unions in the negotiation for the total implementation of the new minimum wage.
Labour was insisting on 29 per cent salary increase for officers on salary level 07 to 14 and 24 per cent adjustment for officers on salary grade level 15 to 17 while the FG had presented a proposal of 11 per cent salary increase for officers on grade level 07 to 14 and 6.5 per cent adjustment for workers of grade level 15 to 17.
It was gathered that the government budgeted N158 billion in the 2020 appropriations Act to take care of the new wage demands.
Before yesterday’s meeting, the Secretary, Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Alade Lawal, had boasted that organised labour would not accept anything less than its demands of 29 percent for workers on levels 7-14 and 24 percent for workers on levels 15-17.
He had compelled government to meet labour’s demand in order to avert any industrial action.
But having emerged from the last minute meeting, their position changed.
With the latest development, the proposed strike has been put on hold, pending the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting.
