The Governor’s forum in Nigeria, made up of 36 state governors, has stated that the Federal Government’s proposed N60,000 minimum salary is unsustainable and cannot fly.
The Forum’s Acting Director of Media Affairs and Public Relations, Halima Ahmed, stated that if allowed to fly, several states will utilise all of their monthly federation account allocations to pay workers’ salaries.
The governors urged the tripartite committee members to reach an agreement on a minimum wage that is both fair and sustainable.
“The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is in agreement that a new minimum wage is due. The Forum also sympathizes with Labour unions in their push for higher wages.
“However, the Forum urges all parties to consider the fact that the minimum wage negotiations also involve consequential adjustments across all cadres, including pensioners.
“The NGF cautions parties in this important discussion to look beyond just signing a document for the sake of it; any agreement to be signed should be sustainable and realistic.
“All things considered, the NGF holds that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal is not sustainable and can not fly. It will simply mean that many states will spend all their FAAC allocations on just paying salaries with nothing left for development purposes.
“In fact, a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month. We do not think this will be in the country’s collective interest, including workers.
“We appeal that all parties involved, especially the Labour unions, consider all the socioeconomic variables and settle for an agreement that is sustainable, durable, and fair to all other segments of the society who have a legitimate claim to public resources,” the statement read.
The organised labour earlier rejected the N60,000 proposal and went on strike statewide on Monday.
The protest was, however, suspended on Tuesday when the Federal Government vowed to raise the minimum wage to more than N60,000 as negotiations resumed.
Following the Federal Government’s agreement to add something to the N60,000 rejected by organised labour, the workers pledged not to accept any lean addition from the government.
The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, revealed this on Tuesday, hours after the Organised Labour, which includes the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), called off its industrial action, which began at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.
“At the meeting on Friday, they (the tripartite committee) said they would not add anything more to the ₦60,000 but in the meeting of yesterday (Monday), Mr President was able to commit to doing what is more than ₦60,000,” Osifo stated.
When asked if Labour would accept a few thousand naira additions to the tripartite committee’s last offer, the TUC boss replied, “No, we also told them that it’s not that we’d get to the table and you start adding ₦1, ₦2, ₦3,000 as you were doing, and we got some good guarantees here and there that they would do something good.”
The organised Labour had recommended a new minimum salary of ₦494,000 for workers in the country, but Osifo stated that they are not fixed on that sum.
He emphasized, however, that the tripartite committee demonstrate seriousness by offering workers something economically reasonable in response to present inflationary pressures.
Since the strike was suspended, the tripartite committee has been meeting to settle on a new national minimum wage.
The fifth meeting since organised Labour’s suspension of strike action is being held behind closed doors at the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja.
The Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), the Minister of Labour and Employment (State) Nkiruka Onyejeocha, the Governor of Imo State Hope Uzodimma, a representative of the Salaries, Income, and Wages Commission, the Minister of Finance Wale Edun, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning Atiku Bagudu are among the committee members present.
When the meeting was held yesterday, committee members promised that a figure would be announced today.
