Findings indicate that during the committee meeting in the first week of April, representatives from the government, labour unions, and private sector employers were instructed to send written proposals to the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC), which acts as the TCNMW’s secretariat.
Given the current state of negotiations and the extreme economic hardship and widespread misery plaguing the nation, there are compelling signs that workers will have to wait longer to obtain a new national minimum wage.
Actually, the Federal Government is said to be the reason of the delay.
This occurred when it was purportedly still being violated by the states of Abia, Taraba, and Zamfara of the 2019 National Minimum salary Act, which increased the minimum salary from N18,000 to N30,000.
The impasse in discussions implies that workers’ expectations of a wage increase before to Wednesday’s anticipated May Day in 2024 have been shattered.
The previous minimum wage system expired on March 31, 2024, and the new one was supposed to go into effect on April 1, 2024.
MEETING
Sunday Vanguard’s checks revealed that the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage, TCNMW, tasked with fixing the new wage, was held in the first week of April where stakeholders received the reports of the public hearings across the six geographical zones held on Thursday, March 7, 2024.
On the other hand, it was learned that the TCNMW had instructed the subcommittees to convene on other matters.
Findings indicate that during the committee meeting in the first week of April, representatives from the government, labour unions, and private sector employers were instructed to send written proposals to the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC), which acts as the TCNMW’s secretariat.
According to sources, OPS has submitted a proposal in addition to the Nigeria Labour Congress’ (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria’s (TUC) counterpart, Organised Labour, which is demanding a minimum salary of N615,000.
However, it could not be confirmed if the government has sent in its proposal.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that after the TCNMW received the reports of the public hearings, the NSIWC fixed April 16 and 17 as meeting dates for a review of the reports and probably commence negotiations, but, unfortunately, the dates turned out to be public holidays for Sallah celebrations.
Since then, Sunday Vanguard learnt that it (NSIWC) has not fixed a new date for a meeting where the actual negotiations would start.
Blaming the government for the delay, one of the labour leaders, who is a member of the TCNMW, said until the government through the NSIWC summons a meeting, nothing could be done.
He said: “The last meeting was in the first week of April when we met to receive the reports of the zonal public hearings.
“It was essentially to collate reports from the zones. We as Organised Labour, that is, the NLC and TUC, have sent in a joint proposal or demand if you like.
“We are aware that the OPS has equally sent in its proposal. We are all waiting for the reconvening of TCNMW meeting to know what the government is putting on the table for us to begin negotiations.
“But that is not to say we have been doing nothing or we have been idle. The various subcommittees, in line with the mandate of the main committee, have been working. We have a lot to discuss and negotiate about.
“The hike in electricity tariff is now an important factor. We had sent in our demand before the increase in electricity tariff.
“To worsen matters, the increase was done without stakeholders’ inputs contrary to the enabling Act. In other words, we were not consulted as required by law.
“All these issues will determine when and how long the negotiations will last. One thing is clear, no matter how long the negotiations take, the new minimum wage will definitely take effect by April 2024. Meaning the law will be backdated to April 2024. The implication is that a new minimum wage can’t be announced on May Day.”
Speaking also, the Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, Adewale Smart-Oyerinde said a new minimum wage cannot be announced on May 1.
“We have not actually started real negotiations. The last meeting we had was when we received reports of the public hearings”, he told Sunday Vanguard.
“We were asked to send our proposals to the secretariat of the committee. We have done that as an Organised Private Sector, OPS. We believe others have sent in theirs. We are waiting for the reconvening of the committee for the negotiations to start. We are ready for the negotiations.”
It was gathered, however, that parties are busy collating data across states, sectors and socioeconomic trends ahead of the commencement of negotiations.
A member of the OPS, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he foresees very robust and interesting negotiations because of the socioeconomic realities on the ground.
He said “As the socioeconomic realities affect workers, so also they affect employers. Nobody is immune to the hardships and socioeconomic realities including the recent hike in electricity tariff. So, the negotiations will be very interesting and robust.”
On his part, the immediate past President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, who spoke on the delay in concluding the minimum wage negotiations and non-implementation of the minimum wage by some state governments and private sector employers, said “The Minimum Wage Act of 2019 made clear provision on when negotiations should start and be concluded, which is six months to the expiration of a prevailing national minimum wage.
“Also there was a clear provision for enforcement in a court of law including payment of interest rate to the workers that have been denied payment of minimum wage.
“Before I left office in 2023, we had contacted Mr Femi Kuti, SAN, to prosecute Taraba, Zamfara and Abia states that refused to start implementing the N30,000 national minimum wage to any of their employees.
“I am sure they have not implemented as we speak.”
According to him, the process for taking these states to court was stalled because the affected state councils failed to provide the requirements especially pay slips of not less than 10 workers to prove non-implementation.
He added “Then-governors of the three states deliberately refused to implement and we were ready to engage them and test the law.
“We need to test the law to enforce implementation. In fact, we had to sack our state council chairman in one of the states when we discovered that he was conniving with the state government to stall implementation.”