President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, has revealed the reasons the organized labour accepted the N70,000 minimum wage during the national minimum wage talks at the President Villa, Abuja.
While fielding questions from journalists, Ajaero explained that during the meeting on the new Minimum wage with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, the organised labour turned down the offer of an increase in the price of petroleum to accept N70,000 as the new minimum wage.
He equally revealed that after the organized labour had agreed with the president on the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) alternative, the groups went ahead to negotiate with a team of experts who agreed to convert vehicles to CNG at the rate of N300,000.
The NLC boss added that in a meeting with the government team, the officials rejected the NLC deal and instead announced that conversion of vehicles to CNG would cost N800,000.
Recall that the organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, had insisted on N250,000 as the new minimum wage, but later settled for the offer of N70,000 from the President.
Ajaero explained that the increase contradicts the agreement with Tinubu’s government on the national minimum wage, describing the increase as traumatic and nightmare.
The NLC president berated Tinubu’s government for “consistent betrayal”, recalling that the National Assembly also assured labour unions of reversing the 250 per cent electricity tariff hike.
