Minimum Wage : No Agreement Reached As Federal Government, Labour Set To Resume Negotiations

The Nigerian Labour Congress and the Federal government has failed to reach an agreement on the implementation of the new minimum wage despite meeting for about nine hours yesterday October 16th, 2019.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the meeting which began by 5 pm on Wednesday and ended at 2.a.m on Thursday had yet to reach any agreement following a breakout session by both government and labour teams.

Labour had said it would go on strike on October 17 (Thursday) if the government failed to reach an agreement with it yesterday (Wednesday) over the consequential adjustments of the minimum wage.

At the end of the meeting , the Minister of Labour and Employment , Dr Chris Ngige , who presided over the meeting , told journalists that specific jobs had been given to some committees that must be submitted before the negotiation could be deemed completed .

He said the meeting would reconvene 7 p.m on Thursday.

Recall that the NLC had issued an ultimatum to the Federal Government  which was supposed to elapse at the close of work on Wednesday .

However, the NLC chairman, Ayuba Wabba, who was also part of the meeting , said that Nigerians would be given details of the negotiation and concessions made after the rescheduled meeting .

He also described as speculation the report that both parties had settled for certain percentage increase in consequential adjustment.

Wabba also said since negotiation was still on, it was not in labour practice to disrupt it with a strike action .