{"id":32704,"date":"2024-05-27T15:31:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T15:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=32704"},"modified":"2024-05-27T15:31:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T15:31:55","slug":"we-cant-meet-nlc-n500000-minimum-wage-private-sector-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/05\/27\/we-cant-meet-nlc-n500000-minimum-wage-private-sector-says\/","title":{"rendered":"We Can\u2019t Meet NLC N500,000 Minimum Wage, Private Sector Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nigeria Employers\u2019 Consultative Association (NECA) says\u00a0the private sector can\u2019t meet the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)\u2019s N500,000\u00a0 minimum wage demand this year or any time soon in light of Nigeria\u2019s economic problems.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The group said the private sector remains committed to the previously proposed N57,000 at the Tripartite Committee meeting on the National Minimum Wage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday, NECA\u2019s Director-General, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said the private sector\u2019s proposal represents a 90% increase in the national minimum wage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Oyerinde stated that the private sector\u2019s commitment has remained despite ongoing economic challenges, including rising interest rates, astronomical logistics costs, increasing energy tariffs, and multiple taxes, levies, and fees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith organised businesses declaring over one trillion naira in combined losses and many shutting down their businesses for different reasons, while others are relocating to other climes, the ability to pay the prevailing N30,000 was already compromised.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be practically impossible to guarantee enterprise sustainability and job security with the current demands of organised labour,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Director-General, however, affirmed that NECA would continue to support workers\u2019 welfare and job protection, emphasizing that these can only be ensured through the survival of enterprises.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the context of the national minimum wage negotiations, he urged the tripartite committee to prioritize job creation and job security.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oyerinde highlighted the urgent need for this focus due to the alarming and rising unemployment rate in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He stressed that the committee should redirect its efforts toward job protection, enhancing the private sector\u2019s capacity to generate more employment, and ensuring sustainability and the ability to pay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, he emphasized that productivity should be a key driver for higher wages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his words,\u00a0\u201cAccording to the National Bureau of Statistics, the combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment as a share of the labour force population (LU2) increased to 17.3 per cent in Q3 2023 from 15.5 per cent in Q2 2023. In specific terms, the unemployment rate increased significantly in Q3 2023 at 5.0 per cent.<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith these figures, more efforts should be concentrated on keeping more people in employment, while the government continues to implement its planned interventions in transportation, food security and general macro-economic stability,\u201d<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) previously walked out of a negotiation meeting after the Federal Government proposed a new minimum wage of N48,000 for workers, while organized labour demanded N615,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Labour representatives also accused the government of failing to provide substantiated data to support their offer, which further worsened the situation. Labour had <\/span>initially demanded N615,000 minimum wage but later reduced it to N500,000 after a meeting of the tripartite committee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, negotiations between the Federal Government and organised labour on the new minimum wage is still ongoing with the government upping its offer to around N57,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nigeria Employers\u2019 Consultative Association (NECA) says\u00a0the private sector can\u2019t meet the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)\u2019s N500,000\u00a0 minimum wage demand this year or any time soon in light of Nigeria\u2019s economic problems.\u00a0\u00a0 The group said the private sector remains committed to the previously proposed N57,000 at the Tripartite Committee meeting on the National Minimum Wage.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":32705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32709,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32704\/revisions\/32709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}