The Federal Government and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, will on Tuesday continue deliberation after the two parties could not reach a compromise during their meeting on Sunday.
This is as the government said that most of the demands made by the organised labour in regards to the subsidy removal are not impracticable.
The TUC, at the meeting, demanded a review of the minimum wage to reflect the economic realities of the time qnd the government vowed to assemble a tripartite committee to that end.
Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting that was held at the Conference Hall of the Chief of Staff to the President at the presidential villa, Abuja, the leader of the government delegation, Dele Alake said that the meeting went smoothly with some demands made from both parties.
Although he said that some of the demands of the TUC, were not impracticable, the demands would be presented to President Bola Tinubu.
He said the two parties agreed to reconvene on Tuesday to consider the demands
His words, “Well, as you all know, we had this reconvened meeting today as we promised you few days ago when we had the initial meeting with the Labour movement.
“We said we were going to reconvened today to keep the engagement on in order to diffuse the tension in the land as a result of the withdrawal of subsidy, which is a reality.
“Now, we are very happy to announced to Nigerians that this engagement has been very productive. The TUC that attended today’s meeting presented a list of demands and those demands we have studied and we are going to present to Mr President, for his consideration.
“But those demands we can announce to Nigerians that a lot of the items on the list, are not impracticable. What we need to do is to study the numbers very well. Then, we have asked the TUC to also give us a leeway to consult very exhaustively and reconvene on Tuesday to actually look at the numbers, viability, practicability of all the items that have been presented to us.
“Now, most important and top priority on the list which the government is also looking at very seriously and the president has announced before, is the issue of the minimum wage which the Labour movement has demanded is the consequential impact of this removal of subsidy.
“So, government is to look at that and Mr President is most likely going to constitute a tripartite committee, that is a committee of federal government, including the state and then the organised Labour and the private sector.
“Now, this is a tripartite arrangement, it will be a committee that will study all the dynamics of a wage increase in percentages, the numbers and the categories that will be affected
“So, by Tuesday when we come back to reconvene, to meet with the TUC again, we should have very concrete items to present to the world. But the most important thing for today is that we are making appreciable progress with the Labour.”