Labour Threatens to Resume Strike Tuesday, Rejects N62,000, Demands N250,000 Minimum Wage

Organised Labour has firmly rejected any proposal of a N62,000 or N100,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers, labeling it a “starvation wage.” Instead, they insist on N250,000 as the living wage, which was their latest demand at the recent Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage meeting held on Friday.

This stance was communicated on Monday by Chris Onyeka, Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show. Onyeka emphasized that the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government, starting from Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

He warned that if the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on the workers’ demands by the deadline, the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) would convene to decide whether to resume the nationwide industrial action that was temporarily suspended last week.

“Our position is very clear. We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any wage below what is necessary for Nigerian workers. We will not negotiate a starvation wage,” Onyeka stated. “We have never contemplated N100,000, let alone N62,000. We are still at N250,000, and that is our final concession to the government and other social partners. Our demands are based on the realities of the marketplace and the cost of essential goods like rice, yam, and garri.”

He further stressed that the responsibility now lies with the Federal Government and the National Assembly to respond to their demands by submitting an Executive Bill and enacting a National Minimum Wage Act that meets their requirements.

“If our demands are not met by tomorrow (Tuesday), the organs of the Organised Labour will meet to decide our next steps. We made it clear that we were only pausing the nationwide indefinite strike. If the governing bodies of our trade unions decide to remove that pause, we will resume the strike.”