THERE are indications that the ongoing strike will be suspended later today, Tuesday, following an agreement by the organised labour movement to return to the negotiation table.
Though the Federal Government has not shifted its position on the N60,000 minimum wage, labour is going to push for more when the tripartite committee reconvenes this morning in Abuja.
The committee will meet for one week nonstop in a bid to reach an agreement on a new national wage floor that will be acceptable to the state governments as well as the organised private sector.
A communique issued at the meeting, which was chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, read in part: “Further to the negotiation by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the subsequent withdrawal of Labour from negotiation, the Leadership of the National Assembly intervened on 2nd June, 2024. The Organised Labour declared a nationwide strike on Monday, 3rd June, 2024 to drive home its demands.
“The Federal Government, in the national interest, convened a meeting with Labour held in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Monday, 3rd June, with a view to ending the strike action.”
After deliberation and engagement by both parties, the government team said President Bola Tinubu is committed to a national minimum wage that is higher than N60,000, saying, “Arising from the above, the Tripartite Committee is to meet every day for the next one week with a view to arriving at an agreeable National Minimum Wage;
“Labour, in deference to the high esteem of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria’s commitment in (ii) above, undertakes to convene a meeting of its organs immediately to consider this commitment; and that no worker would be victimised as a result of the industrial action.”
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, and his Trade Union Congress counterpart, Festus Osifo, signed the communique.
