The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero has disclosed that the Organised Labour would now demand N1 million as minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The labour leader who spoke on Arise Television on Sunday, said this is in line with current realities in the country, saying that the prices of essential commodities have gone beyond the capacity of Nigerians.
Recall that Organised Labour had last year demanded N200, 000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers, stating that it was the least required for workers to survive the current economic situation in the country.
Ajaero who alongside Usifo, the President of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, gave the federal government 14-day altimatum to intervene in the hardship currently in the country, said N200, 000 can no longer take any worker home, considering the rising prices of food and other household items.
For instance, he alluded to the devaluation of the Naira to the dollar as well as the pump price of petrol which he said has made things worst for the ordinary citizens in the last few weeks.
He said, “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.”
