ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has denied negotiating the N40,000 consequential adjustment for federal workers following the 2024 national minimum wage increase, saying responsibility for the adjustment rested with public-sector negotiating unions.
In a statement issued on November 8, 2026, and signed by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Benson Upah, the Congress said claims that it negotiated the additional payment were misleading and distorted Nigeria’s collective bargaining structure.
The NLC explained that its role in the tripartite national minimum wage process was to negotiate the minimum wage, which serves as the basic pay floor for workers. It said negotiations on consequential adjustments — the process of aligning existing salary structures with a new minimum wage — were handled separately by unions and negotiating bodies in the relevant sectors.
In the public sector, the Congress said the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC), comprising government representatives and trade unions, was responsible for negotiating the implementation of the new wage and consequential adjustments with the Federal Government. It added that corresponding councils at state level handled negotiations with state governments.
It cited the negotiations between the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers and the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees as an example. The Congress said it represented workers in both the public and private sectors but did not directly negotiate consequential adjustments across the various sectors.
“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 statement said. It maintained that the N40,000 adjustment for federal workers was negotiated by the unions in the public sector.
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