The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the Nigeria Labour Congress have revealed reason for the rejection the federal government’s latest proposal of ₦60,000 as the new minimum wage for workers.
TUC President, Festus Osifo, explained that the proposed amount is not acceptable to the labour unions, citing the need for a more realistic and fair wage for workers.
This is the third time the organized labour has rejected the government’s offer, having previously turned down proposals of ₦48,000, ₦54,000, and ₦57,000.
The labour unions had initially demanded a minimum wage of ₦615,000, which they later reduced to ₦497,000 and then ₦494,000.
The Tripartite Committee, responsible for negotiating a new minimum wage, has yet to reach an agreement, with only three days left until the May 31 deadline set by the labour unions.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV’s “Politics Today”, Osifo explained labour’s stance on the proposed minimum way, arguing that the value of N60,000 today was significantly lesser than what could be obtained with N30,000 in the past due to the ample reduction in the purchasing power of the naira.
He said, “The position of Labour has been very clear. Today the government came to the negotiation table: if you remember, the last time it was N57,000. So they moved it to N60,000. So when they moved to N60,000 the first thing we asked them was to kindly give a breakdown of the sum. How do you want a Nigerian to survive on this today? Somebody that is in Grade level one, step one; how will this person survive? Let’s assume this person is working in a Central area and he lives in Lugbe, Maraba, or Yanyan, can you kindly give us the breakdown? What is the cost of transportation that is embedded in this N60,000? What is the cost of feeding embedded in it? Give us that breakdown. They did not.
“But on the part of Labour from the beginning, we have been very consistent on this subject because we have been giving a breakdown on how we think a man that is married to a woman with four children will survive. Because for us, the president has promised from Day one that he was going to give Nigerians a living wage. You can go and read his inauguration speech and all the subsequent speeches he has made to the country. So, we kept drawing them there. But on their part, they did not give us that breakdown.
“If you look at today, N60,000 at about N1,500 exchange rate is about $40. If you look at the last two minimum wages, when we negotiated 18,000. N18,000 minimum wage in 2011 was equivalent to $125. Then N30,000 minimum wage in 2019, depending on the exchange rate you used was between $95 to $100. But you cannot give us $40 now because of the value. So, our problem is not the volume of money. So, you’ll hear N60,000 and think this is a huge amount of money. But the question is, what is the value of this money?
