Solomon Elusoji
sion and the meagre amount being offered by the Federal Government, adding that they were particularly sad over the staggered implementation of the new minimum wage.
While commending the President for setting up the committee to work out the modalities for relativity and any other consequential effect that may arise from the new national minimum wage, it said its initial optimism was hinged on the fact that the step would speed up the implementation of the minimum wage.
“We are, however, worried by this stalemate and must, in all honesty, point out that what the government is offering is far too small to be acceptable. “We recall that in the immediate past exercise, 53 per cent relativity was used across board. The resort therefore to unnecessary obduracy by the government’s team is neither helpful nor reflective of precedence.
“The option of a staggered implementation conveyed in a press statement by the Chairman of the Salaries and Wages Commission is similarly not in good faith; the notion of staggered implementation is both divisive and catastrophic.
“It is important to note that the national minimum wage has always been implemented holistically in acknowledgement of the fact that we all go to the same market.
“In the light of this and the need to head off a major industrial crisis, we would urge you to do all that is necessary to ensure that the meeting of the Committee is reconvened with NLC and TUC.”
On Wednesday, July 31, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) resumed negotiations with organised labour. However, after a meeting that lasted about four hours, both sides again failed to come to an amicable agreement.
According to reports, during the meeting, organised labour’s 10-man negotiating team, which was headed by Comrade Simon Achebe, the acting chairman of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, insisted on 29 per cent wage increase for those on levels 07 to 14 and 24 per cent for top civil servants on levels 15-17. However, the government’s 10-man team, led by a Permanent Secretary in the OSGF, Adekunle Lawal, insisted on 9.5 per cent to 10 per cent for workers on levels 7-14 and 5 per cent to 5.5 per cent for levels 15 to 17.
Still, both sides had agreed to reconvene for talks on August 14 and 15. Undoubtedly, what will happen on the upcoming dates will go a long way in determining whether the minimum wage issue will finally be put to bed.