The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, has said the proposed minimum wage of 615,000 naira is open to negotiation from the government.
President of the TUC, Festus Osifo made this statement in an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, DAILY POST reports.
According to him, the TUC is open to conversations and bargaining with the government.
“The amount that we put forward, in reality, we also understand from organized labour, when you are going for collective bargaining agreement, you would do your study, you know what is practically feasible and possible, you’ve done your analysis. What we have put forward is what we think will be the living wage and we have justification for that.
“But it is a negotiation. When you go into negotiations, we are also expecting a counteroffer from the government side. They will tell us no we can not pay 615,000, maybe what we could pay, let’s assume is 300,000 naira. We enter into conversations. We are open to having conversations.
“We are not forcing our position that the government must implement, either take it or leave it, no. But it is a negotiation, so we bring all our negotiation experts and tools to the table, we try to make the government understand why they must make the workers a priority,” he said.
Osifor further stated that regardless of the reassurances of various state governors to look into the matter, a lot of states in Nigeria are still struggling to pay the current minimum wage for workers.
He said, “Every worker’s day, you have governors coming to the podium and making big announcements, but when you leave there, how many of these announcements are sought through? How many of them do see the light of the day?
“When you listen to those comments, you would be thinking that yes you have a lot of big statements coming up. Regrettably, over the years, we just see this as major rhetoric. I’m sorry to say but that is what it is. It’s just like a sound bite.”
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