Talks on a new minimum wage will continue today.
Yesterday, the Federal Government raised its offer from N48,000 to N54,000.
Labour, which proposed N615,000 declined to reduce its proposal.
The private sector offered N56,000 at the first meeting of the Tripartite Committee.
The governors’ offer may be made today because their representatives promised at yesterday’s meeting, to make consultations.
But a Labour source at the meeting said Federal Government’s new offer is unacceptable.
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Labour also chided the governors for staying away from the Tripartite meetings.
It was however gathered that the Goni Aji-led Tripartite Committee negotiating the new wage adjourned the meeting till today to allow governors to make an offer.
One of the labour sources said: “The consensus within the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress is a wage that can adequately take care of a family for a month.
“This new offer (N54,000) fell below what we expected. We want a minimum wage that will be able to take care of a family.
“It is also sad that governors have not been attending the meetings, despite having six representatives (one from each geo-political zones) in the 37-member committee). Only one of them sent a representative to yesterday’s meeting, who said he was not given any mandate to speak at the meeting. That is why the meeting was adjourned till tomorrow (today). This is a serious matter between labour, organised private sector, and the government.
“The Federal Government said they are presenting N54,000. We said no.
“We are hoping that by tomorrow (today), the meeting will find a way of bringing the governors to the round table so that we can be talking even if we disagree.
“It is not only today (yesterday) that the governors have been absent from the minimum wage meetings. Since they attended the first time, they have not attended again except for Prof. Charles Soludo of Anambra State who joins sometimes through zoom.
‘’Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago has been sending representatives.”
Another source, however, said the tripartite committee hopes that the governors would today join the meeting.
“By tomorrow(today) at 4 pm when the meeting will sit again to continue the negotiations, we will hear the governors input and then reveal our position,’’ he said, adding that they have already discussed with the Organised Private Sector (OPS).
He said: “We have met with the OPS and discussed. We did this because we are poised to do everything possible to ensure that negotiation is concluded and Nigerian workers have a new minimum wage by May 31.
“We are very serious about taking actions in the interest of protecting and promoting the welfare of Nigerian workers. We will do our best to ensure smooth negotiation.”
The tripartite committee was on January 30, inaugurated to come up with a new minimum wage.
