Worried by the crippling impact of the industrial action organized by the labour unions over the minimum wage negations which kicked off nationwide today on the public service nationwide, there are strong indications that the Federal Government would be ready to engage workers on further dialogue tomorrow to resolve the pesky issue.
According to a source, the Federal Government, through the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), scheduled another meeting of the tripartite committee on the new national minimum wage for tomorrow.
The representatives of the tripartite committee had last Friday met but the negotiating team of the NLC and TUC walked out following the government and organised private sector’s (OPS’) refusal to increase the N60,000 minimum wage. Efforts by the National Assembly to intervene on the lingering minimum wage issue on Sunday also ended without any agreement with the labour unions.
It was reliably gathered by our correspondent from the source, who is a senior official at the NSIWC on Monday that the Federal Government was fully ready to parley the labour groups again on Tuesday to avert the negative consequences of the industrial action by workers.
He said: “Arrangements are in top gear to reconvene the tripartite committee’s meeting tomorrow as we cannot fold our arms and allow this minimum wage issue to undermine ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to ensure improved development of the country.
“So, barring unforeseen circumstances, the committee will reconvene tomorrow for the way forward on the minimum wage as the government is concerned about improved welfare of all workers in the country”, he added.
