The Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, says back-end talks with organised labour on the next minimum wage before committee-level discussions could help avert an industrial crisis and other labour problems.
Oyerinde made the case in an interview with Gloria Nwafor, arguing that the world of work has changed since COVID-19 and that workers are no longer focused only on pay or perks. He said employees now want meaning in their jobs, along with mental health support and greater flexibility in how they are engaged.
He said expectations have risen sharply over the past five years, forcing employers to adjust to new realities rather than rely on old workplace assumptions. The shift, he added, has pushed companies to rethink what makes jobs sustainable and what workers now consider acceptable.
His comments place the next minimum wage process inside a wider debate about the future of work, not just salary levels. In that framing, wage talks are tied to whether employers and labour can handle changing demands without triggering fresh unrest.
The tension is that the government is being urged to think beyond pay as it considers reforms, but the interview from Nigeria News ends before setting out which specific changes it wants adopted. Oyerinde’s warning is clear: if the talks ignore how work has changed, the dispute could spill beyond wages into broader labour friction.
What comes next is the shape of the government’s reforms and whether pre-engagement with labour happens early enough to keep the next round of minimum wage talks from turning confrontational.
