AFTER marathon hours of deliberation, the Federal Government and labour leaders yesterday failed to seal an agreement over the contentious new minimum wage and consequently adjourned further dialogue till Tuesday.
The meeting, which was initiated by the Federal Government in its bid to avert the strike threatened by Labour, was the third of its kind within one week without any resolution. Addressing the press after the meeting, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu said the Federal Government and labour leaders agreed to adjourn till Tuesday to continue the deliberation.
Confirming the minister’s statement, Acting General Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Owei Lakemfa said he was very optimistic that the outcome of the next meeting would be positive.
The organised labour had suspended a three-day warning strike on July 19 following last minute negotiations with the Federal Government and the state governors.
In meeting coordinated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim, which led to the suspension of the strike by the labour, the Federal Government, had agreed to pay N18,000 as contained in the new Minimum Wage Act only for some of its officials to declare early last week that only workers from levels one to six would benefit.
The state governors, who were also party to the agreement with the labour leaders showed a sign that they were not ready to pay the new wage on July 20 when they allegedly concluded at a meeting held in Abuja that unless the Federal Government increase their allocations to 42 per cent, they would not implement the N18,000 minimum wage.
Governors Gabriel Suswam of Benue and Babangida Aliyu of Niger states had both indicated their inability to pay the new minimum wage. Suswam was widely reported to have said that even if the workers in his state went on strike for one year, he would not be able to pay the N18,000.
He said the finance of the state could not support the new wage regime. “For example, Benue State receives, on the average, N2 billion a month and my salary wage bill as of now is N1.4 billion. If I have to pay the (new) minimum wage, I need N4.8 billion to do that a month. Where will I get that kind of money from? Except when I receive the normal N2 billion, I will borrow additional N2.8 billion to be able to pay?”
“Where would I get the money from? The internally generated revenue of the state is nothing to write home about, so I don’t even have anything to add to what I received,” said Suswan.
Aliyu had also called for the review of the federal revenue allocation formula hinging his ability to implement the new wage on the review.
“A colleague of mine in another state gets N10 billion per month and I get N2.4 billion per month, then somebody in Abuja said that the person collecting N2.4 billion as federal allocation per month must pay the same salary with the person collecting N10 billion per month.
“From the report of a committee available to me in the state, we need N4.5 billion per month to pay the new minimum wage. So when you hear us crying for upward review of revenue allocation formula, you should support us.”
“Nobody knows what amount of money is accruing into the federation account because many leakages are there,” he said. “Sometimes, many illegal deductions are done by the Federal Government before the clearing from the federation account, so it is our responsibility to ask questions,” Aliyu said.
Another round of meeting between the Federal Government and labour leaders in Abuja on Saturday was deadlocked as the labour accused the government of insincerity.
“The Federal Government team failed to discuss the three scenarios worked out by the joint government-labour team. Rather, it made a new offer that is unacceptable to labour. We in labour now register a deadlock on the negotiations and ask the Federal Government to make a concrete offer. On this basis, we register a deadlock,” said labour in a statement jointly signed by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Acting Secretary General, Owei Lakemfa, and Trade Union Congress (TUC) Secretary General, John Kolawole.
“Labour does not see any light at the end of the tunnel but believe that by the time they meet tomorrow, there will be a renegotiation,” the statement added.
The Information and Communications Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, had told journalists earlier that the Federal Government has agreed on all conditions put on the ground by the labour, except the one that all workers should get N18,000.