The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has said that Nigerian workers have every right to keep asking for a wage review. He recently revealed that NLC met with an unprepared government team when it last negotiated the new national minimum wage, and that inevitably led to an unclear agreement.
Speaking recently during an interview with the Vanguard Nigeria, Ajaero revealed that they asked the government representatives how much of the 70,000 minimum wage will go towards transportation, basic daily needs, feeding and housing, and the officials had no response for them.
According to him, the aim of the congress is to benchmark any agreed minimum wage against inflation, therefore, as inflation increases across the country, the wage should automatically go up as well.
He confirmed that the N70,000 minimum wage was reluctantly accepted based on the promise that the FG would not increase the pump price, but the government has since reneged on that vow, further devaluing an amount that is not even enough.
“When we went for the negotiations of the new national minimum wage, we had in mind that we were going to get a clear agreement based on the cost of living. But we met a government team that was unprepared.
We asked how much of the N70,000 they wanted to pay would go towards transport? What about basic needs? How much is housing? We tabulated the costs of cooking gas, a bag of rice, and other essentials. The government team didn’t have any response. At that time, the situation was biting seriously, and we insisted on a living wage.
In the end, we didn’t get it. We wanted to benchmark it against inflation. If inflation increases, the wage should adjust automatically. But they still refused.
So, after a national strike, numerous protests, and an agreement with the President that if we accepted N70,000, they would not increase the pump price (which they reneged on), we reluctantly accepted the N70,000. Now, the value of that N70,000 has been completely eroded,” he said.
Ajaero believes workers cannot be criticised for demanding a higher minimum wage because the salary they keep getting is simply not enough to cope with the deteriorating state of our economy.
He maintained that President Tinubu recently said that the money made from the removal of the subsidy has been going to the governors, and it is obvious that the governors aren’t doing anything meaningful with it.
He concluded by saying Nigeria is currently in a dire state, and citizens are expected to cry out as the situation continues to hurt their pockets.
“Even the wage award they gave as relief has stopped. You can see that we have every right to demand a cost of living allowance to address our current situation.
These are some of the things we are going to raise. If you look at the money they made from the so-called removal of the subsidy, the president has acknowledged that the money now goes to the governors. But the governors don’t seem to be doing anything with it. In some states, they are not even paying wages.
We have every reason to demand wage awards or some form of relief. This has happened before, where people were given foodstuffs, like rice, just to survive. It’s not a matter of right or wrong. The economy is in a dire state, and it is hurting the people,” he added.
