In a recent statement, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero,has announced that the meeting between labour leaders and the government will reconvene next week, as earlier reported.
He stated that both parties have not changed their positions on the amount discussed.
Ajaero explained that the recent meeting was more of a discussion than a negotiation.
The parties agreed to review the terms and meet again in one week.
He noted that the meeting did not focus on specific amounts but on some basic issues they agreed upon.
When asked about the N250,000 being demanded by Labour, Ajaero confirmed that they did not discuss specific amounts in the meeting.
The current positions regarding the amounts of N250,000 and N62,000 remain until the conversation is concluded.
“in a real sense, it wasn’t a negotiation but a discussion and we have had that discussion. We agreed to look at the real terms and to reconvene in the next one week. So that’s where we are. Because we didn’t go down there to talk naira and kobo. At least there were some basic issues that we agreed on”
“I remember mentioning that we didn’t go into Naira and Kobo discussion. Now the status quo in terms of the amount N250,000 and N62,000 remains until we finish this conversation,” Ajaero said.
The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, supported Ajaero’s statements.
He said they presented the current economic realities to the President.
Osifo highlighted the economic difficulties Nigerians are facing, including the erosion of the naira’s value and the resulting increase in prices of commodities and goods.
Osifo explained that they wanted to present these issues directly to the President, as he is the leader of the country and responsible for addressing these concerns.
They had previously discussed these matters with the President’s agents, but this meeting aimed to make a direct appeal to the President himself.
They presented various economic analyses and arguments to support their case for increasing the minimum wage.
“In the meeting we tried to put the issues on the table. Issues that are bothering and biting Nigerians today, are the economic difficulties and the value of naira, how it has also eroded, and how these have affected the prices of commodities and goods in the market.“
“We tried to put these before Mr President because he is the President of the country and the bulk stops at his table,” he said.
