By Damilare Adeleye
The organised labour unions including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have again rejected a fresh minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government.
It was learnt that the unions rejected the offer of the Federal Government to pay N60,000 as new minimum wage.
The Organised Labour also shifted grounds from its N497,000 stance last week to N494,000.
A reliable source in the Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers told journalists that the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector side of the talks proposed a N60,000 monthly minimum wage as against the N57,000 they proposed last week when the committee last met.
The government had initially proposed N48,000 and N54,000 last week, which were also rejected by the Organised Labour.
The Organised Labour had also presented N615,000 as the new minimum wage but saw reasons to drop their demand to N497,000 last week and then to N494,000 on Tuesday (today).
It was learnt that today’s meeting was deadlocked as talks ended without an agreement on what to pay as a new minimum wage.
The Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers is yet to agree on a new minimum wage just about three days before the May 31 deadline the labour unions gave to the government to conclude the negotiations.