The presidency on Thursday in Abuja said the federal government is yet to take a decisive position on the ongoing nationwide industrial action.
The chief of staff to the president, Abba Kyari, during a meeting with union leaders, said the purpose of the meeting is to understand what led to the strike.
According to Mr Kyari, What led to the strike was not the figure of the minimum wage but the process to arrive at the figure, which was stuck.
“It is the process of arriving at the figures that stalled the negotiations,” he said.
Mr Kyari said the government has not made a position yet.
In his response, the national leader of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba, said the federal government made a promise to the unions.
Mr Wabba however, did not disclose the nature of the promise made by Mr Kyari.
“The chief of staff tried to give us details of government’s position which we will have to go and convey to our members and then we can revert back to him,” Mr Wabba said.
He said the federal government has given the unions its word while noting that the union would communicate with their members and revert back to the government.
“This is how far we have gone but clearly I think we have tried to share details of the information that pertain to the issue of the national minimum wage and how the ongoing negotiation was stalled and also the best way to get out of it,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Mr Wabba announced a total strike over the federal government’s failure to reconvene the tripartite committee constituted in November last year to recommend a new national minimum wage for workers in the country.
A last ditch effort by the federal government to avert the strike ended in a stalemate on Wednesday.
The unions said the strike action would be total across the country.
The workers are demanding a new minimum wage of about N50, 000 instead of the current national minimum wage of N18, 000.
Most state governors as well as proponents of true federalism have, however, argued that states should be allowed to set their own minimum wage, especially as many states are barely able to pay the current N18, 000 minimum wage.
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