Festus Osifo: Labour not fixated on N494k minimum wage — not everyone can afford it

Festus Osifo, president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), says organised labour will not accept an “unreasonable” addition to the N60,000 minimum wage offer by the federal government.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday, Osifo said labour would not have embarked on a strike if the federal government had shown signs of seriousness in previous meetings.

Earlier, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC “relaxed” their indefinite strike by one week to negotiate with the federal government on a new minimum wage.

The NLC and the TUC had declared an indefinite strike, which started on Monday, over the failure of the federal government to meet their minimum wage demand.

On Monday night, the labour unions reached an agreement with the federal government to fix a new minimum wage, which is above N60,000.

Speaking on the development, Osifo said the federal government understands that organised labour is not “fixated” on the demand for the N494,000 minimum wage.

The TUC president said the labour unions knew it would be difficult for all parties involved to afford the N494,000 offer.

“We also told them that it is not that we get to the table you start adding N1 and N3,000 as they were doing,” Osifo said.

“If they (the federal government) had told us on Sunday that we should give them one week to resolve the issue.

“If what we achieved yesterday (Monday) was achieved on Sunday, there was no need for us to embark on industrial action.

“’In all seriousness, they know we are not fixated on N494,000, and we know on our part that N494,000 cannot be afforded by everybody.”