In the ongoing negotiations with organised labour and the organised private sector, or OPS, over a new national minimum wage, the Federal Government has raised its offer from N54,000 to N57,000.
In Tuesday’s negotiations, the government proposed to pay N54,000 as the minimum wage.
Vanguard learned that the government team, having taken a brief break to consult, increased its initial offer by N3,000 in order to match the OPS offer.
Recall that the OPS increased its offer earlier today from the N54,000 it had originally provided during the meeting last week to N57,000.
The federal government rejected the N615,000 demand from Organised Labour, which it emphasised was based on the existing economic realities.
Due to neither party’s willingness to compromise, this has caused the discussions to conclude in impasse.
On Wednesday, however, the Organised Labour at the ongoing Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage meeting lowered its demand from N615,000 to N500,000 in an attempt to gain ground and assure a swift conclusion of the negotiation on a new national Minimum Wage.
“Government has agreed that NLC is using evidence-based presentation,” the source claims. However, they contend that eight states are either underpaying or failing to fully implement the minimum wage for 2019.
The insider added of organised labor’s ground shifting, “Labour has been requested to shift in response to the Government.” They gave in and settled for N500,000.