Although the meeting between Chris Ngige Minister of Labour and Employment to thrash out grey areas on the consequential adjustments arising from the new national minimum wage ended in an inconclusive note Tuesday., there are indicatiins that the much publicised strike action may not hold.This is because the meeting which basically dwelt basically on the consequences of the N30,000 national minimum wage made some headway as both parties shifted grounds on their earlier positions.
Consequently, all the stakeholders involved in the negotiation are expected to reconvene Wednesday, to possibly iron out other grey areas that may culminate in averting the strike.
At end of the of the over give hours meeting government stepped up from 11 percent for grade levels 07 to 14 and 6.5 percent for grade levels 15 to 17 to a new offer of 17 percent for grade levels 07 to 09, 15 percent for workers on grade levels 10 to 14 and 12 percent for grade levels 15 to 17.
Similarly, the Labour team reviewed their stance from 29 percent to 25 percent for grade levels 07 to 14 and 24 percent to 20 percent for workers on grade levels 15 to 17.
Deputy President of NLC Amaechi Asugwuni said “Negotiation is still ongoing even though we actually thought negotiations will be concluded today but we can’t predict the negotiations, therefore adjournment became necessary to the best if our knowledge the struggle will still continue . Tomorrow we will meet by two and that meeting will also determine the fate of that we expect that we will close that meeting positively.
“So far commitment has been shown but we believe that the areas that are still in context are critical therefore government can urge also on their part to see how they can shift ground positively in order to mitigate the agitation ahead”.
Head of service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi said
“We’ve had a very peaceful engagement so far the labour side has discovered that there is just one side of the welfare of workers and both sides made a lot of concessions but we discovered that there are some grey areas that needs to be ironed out. Some documents and information are being sorted out which we are providing and by Grace of God tomo discussions will continue and we believe that we will be able to get everything resolved”.
Nguage had foreclosed the possibility of the strike insisting that both parties would reach amicable settlement.
The minister who spoke on Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Monday said he would maintain balance as the chief negotiator to ensure that neither if the parties would be short changed.
