The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has denied negotiating the 40,000 naira consequential adjustment granted to federal workers following the implementation of the 2024 national minimum wage, insisting the outcome was solely the responsibility of public sector unions.
In a statement issued over the weekend and signed by its Acting General Secretary, Benson Upah, the NLC described claims that it negotiated the 40,000 naira across-the-board addition as false and a deliberate distortion of Nigeria's collective bargaining framework.
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- The NLC says its mandate is limited to negotiating the national minimum wage itself
- Consequential adjustments are negotiated separately by unions in each sector, it says
- In the public sector, the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council handles implementation talks with the Federal Government
- The 70,000 naira minimum wage was signed into law on July 29, 2024
What the NLC says its role actually is
The Congress said its function in the minimum wage process is limited to negotiating the national minimum wage through the tripartite arrangement involving labour, government and employers. That wage sets the lowest pay threshold applicable across all sectors.
Consequential adjustments — the process of aligning existing salary structures with a new minimum wage — fall to the respective sectors, the statement said. In the public sector, the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, comprising government representatives and about eight trade unions, negotiates implementation and consequential adjustments with the Federal Government.
In the private sector, industrial unions negotiate with employers' associations based on the peculiarities of their industries. The NLC 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 bargaining.
NLC rejects link to the 40,000 naira figure
The Congress was direct about the disputed figure. "The claim that the NLC was responsible for negotiating the 40,000 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," the statement said. "The 40,000 naira outcome was the sole responsibility of the leadership of the unions in the public sector."
It added that, throughout the history of national minimum wage negotiations, its leadership had never negotiated consequential adjustments directly with government or private sector employers.
What happens next
The statement does not change any worker's pay. What it does is put distance between the national labour centre and a figure many federal workers have criticised since the adjustment was announced. Workers with complaints about the adjustment now have the NLC's own pointer for where it says responsibility lies: the leadership of the public sector unions at the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council table.
Credit: The Sun and Vanguard reports of November 8, 2026, reporting the NLC statement signed by Benson Upah.
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