THE Organised Labour has agreed to attend the “negotiation” meeting of Tripartite Committee on the Minimum Wage slated for Tuesday, May 21.

 Vice President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Etim Okon, gave the confirmation in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, May 20, in Abuja.

Recall that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the TUC had walked out on the negotiation meeting, as the Federal Government proposed N48,000 as new minimum wage for workers in the country, saying in a joint statement that the proposal “falls significantly short of meeting our needs and aspirations.”

Labour also said government’s failure to provide any substantiated data to support its offer exacerbates the situation and lack of transparency and good faith undermines the credibility of the negotiation process.

“The federal government has apologised and the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and we are going to appear and present our demand.

“We will still be presenting the N615,000. It is what we presented before we walked out, though our submission was not rejected by the government. We only rejected the N48,000 that government presented. Because they did not show us how they arrived at that amount.

“That is taking cognizance of transportation, housing, food, utilities, health, education, among others, which are basic needs of the people.

“So, government should come out clearly with what they are offering with the indices and variables and also how they arrived at that. This is all what we are saying,” Okon said.

Also, Director General of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, expressed the hope that Tuesday’s meeting would be a successful, even as he disclosed that the federal government had prevailed over what happened at the last meeting, as labour had walked out of the negotiation process.

“I am happy the government had prevailed on the issue and they would be coming back to the table for the actual negotiations.

“Everybody figure is valid; Labour’s N615,000 proposal is valid to the extent of labour reality, government’s N48,000 is valid to their reality. The private sector’s N54,000 is also valid to the present day reality.

“Like I said, we have moved back to the negotiation table properly and we would look at alignment of positions. There will a lot of give and take.

“Also, there will be a consensus on what the national minimum wage will be and the committee will then make a recommendation to Mr President,” he said.