Aso Villa meeting: No deal on new national minimum wage, to continue next week

The meeting between President Bola Tinubu and the leadership of Organised Labour at the Presidential Villa, Abuja today produced no breakthrough as parties have resolved to maintain the status quo.

The Organised Labour is asking for a minimum of N250,000 as the minimum wage whereas the federal government has proposed N62,000, reports Nigerian Tribune.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Festus Usifoh, affirmed that the meeting did not discuss anything in terms of naira and kobo.

The minister noted that President Tinubu only had a discussion with the leadership of Organised Labour as a father to children but expressed the hope that a solution will soon be found to the minimum wage issue.

“It is a fruitful meeting, father, children meeting. I think we are hopeful that very soon everything will be resolved. Of course, when father and children talk, you know what it is. That’s just exactly what has happened. It took us almost about an hour. I believe that it’s all for good,” she stated.

In his remark, Ajaero said that the villa meeting was not for negotiation but an opportunity to have a discussion with the president.

“In real sense it wasn’t a negotiation but a discussion and we have had that discussion. We agreed to look at the real terms probably and reconvene in the next one week. So, that’s where we are. Because we didn’t go down there to talk naira and kobo. At least there were some basic issues that we agreed on,” he said.

When pressed on whether Labour was adamant on the N250,000 demand, he replied: “I remember mentioning that we didn’t go into naira kobo discussion.

“Now the status quo in terms of the amount N250,000 and N62,000 remains until we finish this conversation.”

On his part, the TUC president revealed that Labour apprised the president of the hardship in the country due to the erosion of the purchasing power of citizens.

According to him, the unions made their usual arguments before the president offered his remarks.

Usifoh added that Labour will “internalise” the president’s position and have a conversation on it before coming back.

“At the meeting, we tried to put the issues on the table. Issues that are bothering and biting Nigerians today, are the economic difficulties and the value of the naira, how it has also eroded, and how these have affected the prices of commodities and goods in the market.

“So, we tried to put these before Mr President because he is the president of the country and the bulk stops at his table.

“We have had all the conversations with all his agents, but today we said let us meet with the father of the country and have this conversation and make the argument that Labour always makes, we made all the arguments, the economic analysis, macro, micro, fiscal and monetary issues.

“So, we put everything forward and at the end, the president made his remark as the president and we all agreed let’s go back, we internalize it, we have some conversation and by one week’s time, we will come back and we will continue the meeting,” Usifoh stated.