NLC denies negotiating N40,000 salary adjustment

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Sunday denied negotiating the N40,000 consequential adjustment granted to Federal Government workers following the implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage, saying the outcome was reached by public sector unions and not the labour centre.

Consequential adjustment refers to the revision of existing salary structures following an increase in the national minimum wage. It determines how workers across different salary grades benefit from a new wage floor, including those already earning above the statutory minimum.

The congress said its role in the minimum wage process was limited to negotiating the national wage through a tripartite arrangement involving organised labour, the government and employers, while adjustments to existing salary structures were negotiated separately by unions in their respective sectors.

In a statement 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 distortion 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 adjustment involves reviewing salaries across different grade levels to maintain the differences between the earnings of junior and senior employees, rather than restricting the implementation of a new minimum wage to workers earning below the statutory threshold.

The NLC said negotiations on the adjustment were the responsibility of unions representing public sector workers, particularly those involved 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. Similar arrangements exist at the state level, where unions negotiate with their respective governments.

In the private sector, industrial unions negotiate directly with employers’ associations, depending on the structure and circumstances of their respective industries.

The congress cited0 the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees as an example of the sector-specific bargaining arrangements.

It maintained that although the NLC represents workers across the public and private sectors, it does not directly negotiate consequential 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 union stated.

The clarification comes amid renewed attention to the implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage, which was approved by President Bola Tinubu in July 2024 following negotiations involving the Federal Government, organised labour and employers.

The consequential adjustment process was intended to realign existing salary structures with the new minimum wage, with negotiations conducted across different categories of public and private sector employment.

Against this backdrop, the NLC said distinguishing between minimum wage negotiations and consequential adjustments was important as discussions over a new national minimum wage approached. It warned that misinformation could create divisions within the labour movement and shift accountability away from the institutions responsible for negotiating workers’ pay.

The congress urged workers to hold the relevant institutions accountable for the outcomes of consequential adjustment negotiations, adding that it would push for a new national minimum wage that approximated a living wage.