By Johnbosco Agbakwuru.<\/p>\n
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ABUJA – THE Federal Government Minimum Wage Negotiation Team is expected to meet today with stakeholders including labour leaders for a conciliatory meeting on the impasse over the new minimum wage.<\/p>\n
The meeting is scheduled at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF by 12 noon and it is expected that the leadership of the organized labour will be in attendance.<\/p>\n
A source privy to the conciliatory meeting told Vanguard that it was aimed at taking a holistic view of the minimum wage brouhaha in a bid to find a lasting solution to it.<\/p>\n
The Federal Government delegation expected at the meeting includes the Ministers of Labour and Employment, Finance and Budget and National Planning, Senator Chris Ngige, Mrs Zainab Ahmed and Udoma Udo Udoma respectively.<\/p>\n
Others are the Head of Service to the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, the Director General, National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, Chief Richard Egbule and Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris. Efforts made to confirm from the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba whether the organized labour will attend the meeting did not yield results as he did not pick the calls on his phone.<\/p>\n
Wabba had while briefing journalists on Wednesday said that every discussion or negotiation on the minimum wage had been concluded, adding that over 50 percent of members of the Tripartite Committee of Minimum Wage Negotiation team in its last meeting had agreed for N30,000.<\/p>\n
He, however, told Vanguard that having submitted minutes of proceedings during the negotiation meetings to President Muhammadu Buhari, the leadership of the organized labour would honour any invitation by the President.<\/p>\n
Following the resolution of Nigeria\u2019s Governors Forum, NGF, to pay only N22,500, Wabba said that the organized labour had reverted to its initial demand of N66,500, noting that the N30,000 agreed at the negotiation meeting was a product of compromise. Recall that the Federal Government had offered to pay N24,500 as the new minimum wage which labour rejected before the NGF came with its own proposal of N22,500 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n