Oluwatosin Enesi
It will be recalled that on June 4, 2024, the Organised Labour relaxed the ongoing strike with a seven-day ultimatum issued to the federal government on minimum wage proposal.
With the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum, there has been fears that the struggle for a new national minimum wage may have waned.
However, speaking at the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Women Commission maiden Annual Convention in Abuja, with the theme, ‘The Dynamic Woman: Navigating Challenges in a Constantly Evolving World.’ Osifo said that the wage discussion was not dead.
He said, “Minimum wage negotiations cannot be dead, you know when we started this conversation, you asked us that in 2017 if you remember we started the minimum wage that was signed in 2019, it took about two years to see the light of day. We promised you when we started in January that we will ensure this one is fast-tracked for us not to be in the conundrum that we were as at 2019 which took two years.
“So where we are today, we submitted the divergent position in June, when we did that you know clearly that Mr President came out to say that he wanted to consult across board which is the governors, local government chairmen, organised private sector and labour. So we are doing some level of reach out and conversations so that what will be submitted to the National Assembly will actually be a minimum wage that will cater for the poorest of the poor.
“For the fact that in the media, we are not shouting, we are doing some level of internal work so that this bill will be submitted in earnest soon. Of course, we still insist on the N250,000 benchmark as the ideal minimum wage”.
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