The Organised Labour, yesterday (Wednesday) soft-pedalled on its initial N615,000 minimum wage demand for civil servants and slashed it to N497,000, after an agreement could not be reached with the Federal Government at the Tripartite Committee meeting held on Tuesday.
The Deputy President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, ThisNigeria gathered, disclosed this yesterday (Wednesday).
According to him, the labour delegation to the tripartite meeting was compelled to reduce its demand with a view to seeing that the Federal Government meets up with the demand.
Ndubuaku, however, expressed worries that despite that labour shifted ground, the government failed to cooperate with the negotiation process.
“Yes, it is true we have reduced it to N500,000. But we are still not making progress at the moment,” he said.
He also noted that the government’s stance demonstrated a lack of concern for the masses despite the acute hardship they are facing due to inflation triggered by its obnoxious economic policies.
He said that if yesterday’s (Wednesday) meeting was stalemated, the organised labour might be compelled to ask Nigerian workers to down-tool until the FG approves an acceptable minimum wage.