BY AHMED AKANBI
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has disowned the N40,000 consequential adjustment paid to federal workers after the 2024 minimum wage, insisting it never negotiated the deal.
In a statement dated November 8, 2026, and signed by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Benson Upah, the Congress said claims linking it to the adjustment were false and a deliberate distortion of Nigeria’s bargaining structure.
Its role, the NLC explained, ended at negotiating the national minimum wage itself, the floor below which no worker should be paid.
”What happens after that, how existing salaries are adjusted to fit the new wage, is not its table to sit at.
”In the public sector, that responsibility belongs to the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC), comprising government officials and eight trade unions.
”At the state level, the council’s counterparts negotiate with state governments, while in the private sector, industrial unions negotiate directly with employers’ associations,” it stressed.
The NLC gave the food and beverage industry as an example, where employers negotiate with the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees on applying the minimum wage.
Though it represents workers across both sector
s, the Congress said it does not negotiate consequential adjustments anywhere.
“The NLC represents both the private and public sectors. However, it is critically important to understand that the NLC does not sit at the table to negotiate consequential adjustments in the various sectors. The leadership of the unions in these sectors bears sole responsibility for the outcomes of consequential adjustments in their respective sectors,” it said.
It was categorical on the federal workers’ case: the N40,000 across-the-board addition was not its handiwork.
“Therefore, 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. The N40,000 outcome was the sole responsibility of the leadership of the unions in the public sector,” the statement said.
The Congress said it has never, in the history of minimum wage negotiations, negotiated consequential adjustments with government or private employers.
“In the public sector, that is the JPSNC’s job. In the private sector, it is the job of the Joint Negotiating Industrial Councils in each industry,“ it stated.
The NLC accused enemies of the labour movement of pushing the false narrative to sow confusion and division as workers prepare for a new minimum wage negotiation.
“Any person who attributes the outcome of consequential adjustments to the NLC is either naïve, plainly ignorant, or involved in propagating outright mischief to mislead Nigerian workers and the masses,” it said.
It warned that shifting blame for the N40,000 deal threatens labour unity at a moment that demands clarity and discipline, and urged workers to reject lies, propaganda and attempts to create distrust within the movement.