The Federal Government has increased its minimum wage offer to Organised Labour from ₦60,000 to ₦62,000.
Labour had warned earlier that the government that a token increase on the initially proposed N60,000 would be rejected.
The development comes after several hours of meeting of the tripartite committee consisting of labour unions, organised private sector, and government on Friday, June 7, 2024.
The new government’s offer is a paltry addition to the proposal, which led to suspended industrial but it remains to be seen if labour will accept the latest proposal.
It’s understood, however, that deliberations on the new minimum wage involving the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government
have now come to an end after several months.
The ball will now be stuck in President Bola Tinubu‘s court, as he is expected to send an executive bill to the National Assembly for legislative action.
Negotiations for the new minimum wage had stalled over the months with labour unions and the Federal Government failing to come to an agreement.
While the government, backed by the organised private sector, proposed ₦60,000, organised labour insisted on ₦494,000.
This created a logjam that resulted in a two-day industrial action earlier in the week.
Labour suspended the strike action after receiving assurances from the government that the subsequent minimum wage proposal would exceed the ₦60,000 threshold.
The suspension of the industrial allowed all the parties to resume negotiations until Friday night.
After the suspension of the strike on Tuesday, Tinubu ordered the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, to produce a new minimum template within two days.
Though the minister presented the template to the President in Abuja on Thursday, its content hasn’t been made public.