The Friday meeting between the federal government team and labour union
leaders in the seat of power, Abuja ended without an agreement.
The meeting was called to stop the planned January 8 strike by labour.
The planned strike by the labour unions is to demand that President
Muhammadu Buhari submit a bill to the parliament for the implementation
of N30,000 minimum wage for workers.
While addressing journalists at the end of the Friday meeting, the
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, said the meeting
has been adjourned till 5 p.m. on Monday.
”We are still discussing and will continue on Monday. We need to make
further consultations before the issues are concluded,” he said.
In his reaction, the labour minister, Chris Ngige, who led the
government delegation, said the government has made progress with the
workers.
The meeting, which started at 12:50 p.m., went on recess at 3:20 p.m. and reconvened 4:28 p.m.
The meeting went on break because President Buhari summoned Mr Ngige,
the finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, and the budget minister, Udoma
Udoma, for an emergency meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has been at loggerheads with the federal government over a new minimum wage.
The NLC and other labour unions demand that the national minimum wage be increased to N30,000 from the current N18,000.
President Muhammadu Buhari has refused to commit to the new proposal.
Instead, the president said last year that he would set up a technical
committee to review the N30,000 proposed by a tripartite committee
earlier set up by the federal government.
State governments also said they won’t be able to pay the N30,000 minimum wage.
