In a shocking development, the National Labour Congress has insisted on one million naira as the new minimum wage, lamenting the rising inflation as a challenge that has condemned Nigerian workers to extreme poverty.
The president of the Nigeria Labor Congress, Joe Ajaero disclosed that the new negotiating terms with the federal government of Nigeria is to ensure the implementation of a sumptuous wage that will cater to the realities in the economy.
The labour leader asserted that due to the current depreciation of the naira and the inflation rate of the country, 1 Million naira will be the best amount to pay workers in the country.
Furthermore, the NLC leader reminded the federal government about the exchange rate when it started its first demand of N 200,000 (as minimum wage) which was about N800/N900, but the difference is clear in today’s exchange price of naira which is about N1,400 or even more.
“A bag of locally produced corn is about N56,000 or more. Foodstuff is getting out of reach, now are we going to get a minimum wage that will not be enough for transportation even for one week?
“You have to factor in these issues and that will determine the Federal Government’s commitment to this negotiation. It is not just that they want to give us a minimum wage.
He also raised an eyebrow at the federal government for not doing the needful at the appropriate time, saying the government ought to have set up a committee six months before this time because the current minimum wage will be expiring by April and negotiation should have commenced before now.
“They looked at some of the governors that are not paying even the existing minimum wage and even they have a minister of budget who didn’t implement his minimum wage as a governor.
” If you have these people in the government team on the issue of minimum wage, some of us have not seen a bright future in the work of this new minimum wage committee.”
