New minimum wage: Edun takes cost implications to Tinubu - Enyinnavictorblog A fresh wage offer by the Federal Government may ...
New minimum wage: Edun takes cost implications to Tinubu - Enyinnavictorblog
A fresh wage offer by the Federal Government may be tabled today before the tripartite committee negotiating a new national salary scale.
The possibility follows a meeting between the President and Finance Minister.
Edun was accompanied to the meeting by Information and National Orientation Minister Mohammed Idris and Budget and National Planning Minister Atiku Bagudu.
Although the Finance Minister merely told reporters after the meeting that there was ‘’no cause for alarm,’’ a source said he presented and discussed the template and the cost implications of the new wage proposal to the President.
The Finance minister was believed to have outlined the costs of new wage across all levels of government workers and the anticipated fiscal impacts of each option on the national budget.
“A lot of things are contained in the report or template he presented to the President, especially what a new wage will cost the government at every grade level in relation to our income and budget.
‘’A team will scrutinise the report after which the President will direct that it be presented before the tripartite committee on the new minimum wage.
“And I am sure the presentation before the committee will be done tomorrow (today).
“You will recall that the President was clear when he gave the instruction on Tuesday,’’ the source added.
At their meeting eight days ago, the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector increased their initial offers to N60,000. Labour rejected it but further cut its initial demand of N615,000 to N494,000.
The intervention by the Presidency led to the signing of an agreement between the government and labour, part of which is that the government will be committed to paying more than N60,000 as minimum wage.
That ended terminated the strike after only one day.
Like Wednesday, not much was achieved by the tripartite committee yesterday.
A member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Nation that they were awaiting the template which would have formed the crux of their deliberations.
He, however, said the panel broke into sub-committees to deliberate on how to conclude talks on the new wage.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by Edun, Bagudu, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, and Uzodinma.
Speaking to reporters, Uzodimma expressed optimism that an agreement on minimum wage could be reached to today.
He said: “I am sure we will reach some concrete agreement when we reconvene tomorrow. That will form what will be presented to the plenary (National Assembly).
“It is not about the amount. We are taking a holistic approach. Wages should be anchored around our capacity to generate revenue and the sovereignty of the country is important to all of us.
“It is not about the workers. It is about Nigeria- our nation. We have obligations as citizens to work with the government of the day to ensure that all parties are satisfied.”
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