The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has denied negotiating the N40,000 consequential salary adjustment granted to Federal Government workers following the implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage, insisting that the agreement was reached by public sector unions.
The congress said its involvement in the minimum wage process was limited to negotiating the national wage through a tripartite arrangement involving organised labour, the Federal Government and employers, while consequential adjustments were handled separately by unions in their respective sectors.
Consequential adjustment refers to the review of existing salary structures following an increase in the national minimum wage to ensure that workers across different grade levels benefit from the new wage regime while maintaining appropriate salary differentials.
In a statement on Sunday, signed by its Acting General Secretary, Benson Upah, the NLC described claims that it negotiated the N40,000 across-the-board addition for federal workers as false and a misrepresentation of Nigeria’s collective bargaining framework.
“The claim that the NLC was responsible for negotiating the N40,000 across-the-board addition as consequential adjustment for federal workers is not only false but is a deliberate distortion of the collective bargaining framework in Nigeria,” Upah said.
The congress explained that negotiations on consequential adjustments were the responsibility of unions representing workers in the affected sectors, particularly those engaged in discussions with the Federal Government.
It identified the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, comprising government representatives and about eight trade unions with their national leadership, as the body responsible for negotiating the implementation of minimum wage agreements and consequential adjustments for federal workers.
According to the NLC, similar bargaining arrangements operate at the state level, where unions negotiate with their respective governments, while industrial unions in the private sector engage directly with employers’ associations based on the peculiarities of their industries.
The congress cited the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees as an example of sector-specific collective bargaining.
It maintained that although the NLC represents workers across the public and private sectors, it does not directly negotiate consequential salary adjustments for individual sectors.
“Throughout the history of the national minimum wage setting exercise, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress has never sat down to negotiate consequential adjustment with neither the government nor the organised private sector employers,” the statement added.
The clarification comes amid renewed attention to the implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage, approved by President Bola Tinubu in July 2024 after negotiations involving the Federal Government, organised labour and employers.
The consequential adjustment was designed to realign existing salary structures with the new wage floor, with negotiations undertaken by the relevant unions across different categories of public and private sector employment.
The NLC said clarifying the distinction between national minimum wage negotiations and consequential adjustments was particularly important as discussions over a new national minimum wage approached.
It warned that misinformation could create unnecessary divisions within the labour movement and divert attention from the institutions directly responsible for negotiating workers’ salary adjustments.
The congress urged workers to hold the relevant unions and negotiating bodies accountable for the outcomes of consequential adjustment agreements, reaffirming its commitment to pushing for a new national minimum wage that approximates a living wage.
