There are strong indications that plans by the Federal Government and the labour unions’ representatives to reach a truce on consequential adjustment on the N30,000 minimum wage on Monday did not achieve any tangible results.
The disappointed workers have, therefore, threatened to resume their suspended industrial action over in the national minimum wage implementation.
A source who was privy to some of the issues discussed at the meeting between the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, chaired by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, said that the two parties succeeded only in shifting little grounds in the earlier positions maintained by them on the matter.
For instance, BRTNews.ng gathered that the government team agreed to raise its initial position of 9.5 percent to 11 percent for grade levels 7 to 14 and 6.5 percent from 5.5 percent for grade levels 15 to 17 civil servants.
However, it was gathered that the leader of the labour team, Simon Anchaver, hinted that workers agreed to step down to 29 percent from their initial demand of 30 percent for grade levels 7 to 14 and 24 percent from 25 percent for levels 15 to 17 workers.
The labour leader was quoted further as saying that the negotiating team had taken a resolution to write to the leaderships of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), the two leading workers’ groups, to consider an industrial action as a means of compelling government to implement the minimum wage as demanded by workers.
Anchaver described government’s delay in the implementation of the new minimum wage as a deliberate effort to make workers down tools for strike action.
While pointing out that workers are already agitated on whether the accumulated arrears on the minimum wage would be paid when talks are finally concluded, the labour chief said that as it was the case in the last inconclusive meeting, the positions of the parties at the end of the meeting would be forwarded to President for further actions.
It would be recalled that the N30,000 minimum national wage was signed into law by President last April after several months of negotiations between governments’ representatives and labour unions leaders.
Analysts are worried that six months after the enactment of the law, federal and state governments, with possible exception of Kaduna State, are yet to see reason why the minimum wage should be paid to workers.
