President Bola Tinubu has approved a wage increase of N35,000 for federal workers for a period of six months after a meeting with labour waders on Sunday night.
Politics Nigeria reports that President Tinubu had earlier announced a provisional wage increase of N25,000 for low-grade workers during his Independence Day broadcast on Sunday.
At the emergency meeting with labour leaders on Sunday, they rejected the wage increase for some workers and demanded that it should be extended to all federal workers on the country.
Chief of staff to the president, Femi Gbajabiamila, then announced an additional N10,000 to the earlier proposed N25,000 after a brief meeting with President Tinubu.
Shortly after, the presidency issued a statement announcing the additional N10,000 increase.
“The Federal Government, on Sunday, October 1, 2023 met with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) on measures to address the dispute arising from the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS),” the presidency said in a letter after the meeting.
“The parties noted the following: “i) The Federal Government has announced N35,000 only as provisional wage award for all treasury-paid federal government workers for six months following further consultation with President Bola Tinubu.
ii) The Federal Government is committed to fast-tracking the provision of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to ease public transportation difficulties associated with the removal of PMS subsidy.
“iii) The Federal Government commits to the provision of funds for micro and small-scale enterprises.
“In light of the discussions held during the meeting, the following were the major highlights:
“The Federal Government urged the Labour unions not to embark on strike action as the issues in dispute can only be resolved when workers are at work.
“Labour Unions made case for higher wage award. A sub-committee to be constituted to work out the details of implementation of all items regarding government interventions to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
”The labour delegation was led by NLC President, Joe Ajaero, Dr Tommy Etim Okon, Deputy President, TUC, NLC General Secretary, Emma Ugboaja, TUC General Secretary, Nuhu Toro, among others.”
