Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has hinted that if no urgent steps were taken to halt the free fall of the Naira and the high inflation rate, the organised Labour might push for N1 million as new monthly minimum wage.
Ajaero who featured in a national television decried the worsening economic hardship since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power.
He decried the plight of the Nigerian masses which he said, had not been so bad.
Ikengaonline had reported that both the NLC and the Trade Union Congress last week issued a two-week strike notice to the Federal Government, expressing frustration over its failure to implement a 16-point agreement signed in October 2023.
“This N1 million may be relevant if the value of the Nigerian (naira) continues to depreciate; if the inflation continues unchecked because the demand of labour is equally dependent on what is happening in the society.
“You will remember that by the time we were contemplating N200,000 (as minimum wage), the exchange rate was about N800/N900 (to a dollar). As we talk today, the exchange rate is about N1,400 or even more.
“Those are the issues that determine the demand and it is equally affecting the cost of living. And we have always said that our demand will be based on the cost of living index. You will agree with me today that even a bag of rice is going for about N60,000/N70,000 or 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.
“The old minimum wage will be expiring by April and ordinarily, the Federal Government ought to have set up a committee six months before that time so that negotiation would have commenced but the Federal Government didn’t do that until (recently when) they inaugurated a committee and the committee has not sat.
“It appears we are going to work within one month or two to agree on a figure and I doubt how those ones are going to… especially when you look at the people that the Federal Government assembled as members of the committee.
“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.”
