NLC denies negotiating N40,000 consequential adjustment for federal workers

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has denied negotiating the N40,000 consequential adjustment granted to federal government workers following the implementation of the 2024 national minimum wage.

In a press release dated November 8, 2026, and signed by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Benson Upah, the NLC described claims attributing the N40,000 adjustment to its leadership as false and a distortion of Nigeria’s collective bargaining framework.

The labour union said the responsibility for negotiating consequential adjustments rests with sector-specific unions and negotiating councils, not the NLC.

The union said the clarification was necessary to address what it described as misinformation surrounding the 2024 minimum wage negotiations and the subsequent consequential adjustment process.

According to the NLC, the national minimum wage is determined through a tripartite negotiation involving organised labour, government and employers’ representatives.

It explained that its mandate at this stage is to negotiate the national minimum wage, which serves as the basic wage floor below which no worker should be paid.

However, once a new minimum wage is agreed upon, negotiations on consequential adjustments are handled by the respective unions and negotiating bodies across different sectors.

The labour congress maintained that although it represents workers across both the public and private sectors, it does not negotiate consequential adjustments for individual sectors.

In the public sector, the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC), comprising government representatives and about eight trade unions, negotiates with the Federal Government on implementation and consequential adjustments. Its state-level counterparts perform similar functions in negotiations with state governments.

For the private sector, industrial unions negotiate individually with employers’ associations based on the structure and conditions of their respective industries.

The clarification comes as Nigeria approaches another round of national minimum wage negotiations, which the NLC said presents an important opportunity to secure improved earnings for workers.

The union warned that attempts to shift responsibility for previous consequential adjustments could create confusion and division within the labour movement ahead of the forthcoming negotiations.

It said it would work to ensure that the outcome of the new minimum wage exercise serves the interests of Nigerian workers and the wider population while approximating a living wage.

The debate over the N40,000 consequential adjustment comes amid broader developments in Nigeria’s minimum wage implementation and renewed demands for improved workers’ earnings.

Nairametrics earlier reported that President Bola Tinubu signed the N70,000 national minimum wage into law on July 29, 2024, raising the previous benchmark of N30,000 and reducing the minimum wage review cycle from five years to three years.

In May 2026, Nairametrics published a review of minimum wages across Nigerian states, showing that several states had approved wages above the N70,000 federal benchmark, with Imo leading at N104,000. The review also highlighted differences in the pace and extent of implementation across states.

More recently, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) rejected the Federal Government’s proposed N70,000 transportation allowance for six months, arguing that workers needed permanent salary increases rather than temporary relief. The union also called for an increase in the pay of the lowest-paid federal workers to N300,000.

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