The Nigeria Labour Congress has listed seven demands from the Federal Government ahead of the May 1, 2024 Workers’ Day.
Aside from demanding for a new minimum wage, the NLC is also asking for the creation of state and local government police to tackle insecurity in the country.
The congress also stressed that states and local governments, as well as the organised private sector, must pay the new minimum wage when it is eventually approved.
International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often called May Day, is a celebration of the working class, and is marked annually on May 1, or the first Monday in May.
The 2024 Workers Day is particularly being looked forward to as it is expected that President Bola Tinubu may unveil the newly proposed minimum wage for workers in the country on that day.
Earlier in the month, organised labour had pegged the new minimum wage at N615,000 per month tentatively.
A member of the National Executive Council of the Trade Union Congress had confided in newsmen that the decision was reached before the hike in electricity tariff by the Federal Government.
The source said, “We are going to have another round of serious conversations with the government. Mind you, the tariff increase is also very good for us, because they (the government) did it when the new minimum wage process had not been concluded. So, it is going to be a good ground for us to ask for more money.”
The N30,000 subsisting minimum wage expired three days ago, as its five-year lifespan ended on April 18.
Former President Muhammad Buhari had signed the N30,000 Minimum Wage Act into law on April 18, 2019.
The tripartite committee, comprising representatives of organised private sector, organised labour and government, for a national minimum wage negotiation, follows the International Labour Organisation Convention 131.
In January, the president, through his Vice President, Kashim Shettima, had, on January 30, set up a 37-member panel at the council chamber of the State House in Abuja.
With its membership cutting across federal and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour, the panel is to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country.
In his opening address, Shettima urged members to ‘speedily’ arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early.
Chairing the panel is a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Bukar Aji, who, at the inauguration ceremony, affirmed that its members would come up with a “fair, practical, implementable and sustainable” minimum wage.
The inauguration followed months of agitation from organised labour who expressed concerns over the FG’s failure to inaugurate the committee as promised during negotiations last October.
From the government’s side, members include the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, representing the Minister of Labour and Employment; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Lydia Jafiya; the Minister of Budget Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Yemi Esan; and Permanent Secretary, GSO/OSGF, Dr Nnamdi Mbaeri, amongst others.