Nigeria Labour Congress (NlC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have, for the third time, rejected the government wage proposal of N57,000 but shifted their demand from N615,000 to N497,000.

The negotiation, which resumed on Wednesday, comes just few days after the NLC and TUC pulled out of the previous negotiations, standing on the grounds that the government and private sector are not willing to agree on a new minimum wage.

Channels Television reports that a prominent member of the Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers disclosed an update on the negotiations to the media house.

The source said that the federal government and the organised private sector side of the negotiation proposed a N57,000 monthly minimum wage as against the N54,000 proposed on Tuesday when the committee resumed negotiations.

NLC resident, Joe Ajaero, on Tuesday, described the initial 54,000 new minimum wage proposal from the government as “unsubstantial”.

The government had initially proposed ₦48,000 last week, which was also rejected by organised labour.

However, during the Wednesday meeting, the NLC and the TUC reduced their demand from N615,000 to N497,000 after seeing the reasons for the decision.

Since the beginning of the negotiation for a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers, the organised labour is yet to be satisfied with the government proposals and has rejected all the government wage proposal.

NLC and TUC had given the federal government until May 31 to come up with a promising proposal and conclude the negotiations or face nationwide protest.