Chidi Samuel| The meeting between Organised Labour and the Federal Government ended in a deadlock again on Wednesday.
The two parties agreed to resume negotiation on Thursday at 7 pm.
After several hours of the meeting, which started at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and ended in the early hours of Thursday, both parties failed to reach a resolution in the consequential adjustment of workers’ salaries as a result of the new minimum wage of N30,000.
Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige said that specific jobs had been given to some committees that must be submitted before the negotiation could be deemed completed.
He said, “some progress has been made but we have not been able to conclude and have collective bargaining agreement. Some committees need to do some computation. We have worked up to the early hours of today. That is in the true spirit of collective bargaining. That is what we have to do to get the process concluded and conclude the process.”
On his part, Ayuba Wabba, NLC President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, said that Nigerians would be given details of the negotiation and concessions made after the rescheduled meeting.
Wabba said, “We have adjourned to reconvene by 7:00 pm. At the appropriate time, we should be able to give the details,” he added that “every dispute will be concluded at the roundtable.”
At stake in the negotiation is the percentage of the salary increase for certain categories of workers.
While the organised labour is demanding a 29% salary increase for officers on salary level 07 to 14 and 24% adjustment for officers on salary grade level 15 to 17, the Federal Government had presented a proposal of 11% salary increase for officers on grade level 07 to14 and 6.5% adjustment for workers of grade level 15 to 17.
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