Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will “honestly and transparently resolve the request by labour for a salary increase for other levels of workers not affected in the implementation of the new national minimum wage.”
Osinbajo stated this on Thursday at a meeting with the new leadership of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa.
The team was led by the new President of the union, Comrade Quadri Olaleye. Labour, Employment & Productivity Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige was also at the meeting.
Commending the labour leaders’ engagement with the Federal Government, the VP told the leaders, “your coming today indicates your willingness to work with government. You should consider the President as someone committed to the welfare of workers. One of the first things he did when we came in was to give States a series of bailouts to help repay backlog of salaries in several States.”
The Vice President noted that the Buhari administration refused to ignore the situation, and instead provided different facilities including Paris club refunds and budget support loans to provide immediate succor to States.
On the contentious issue of salaries increase being demanded, the VP observed that labour “must find ways to work with a government that is honest and wants to work to resolve the issue transparently.
“Let us give ourselves room to negotiate properly. The President wants an honest, open process, we will be transparent and honest about it. Labour leaders should give us the benefit of the doubt,” he says.
Besides, Prof Osinbajo assured the leaders that the federal ministers all have a mandate to ensure job creation opportunities while government also works on creating an enabling environment for the private sector to create jobs.
