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• Says FG has no excuse, vows to mount more pressure
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has vowed to intensify pressure on the Federal Government to review the N70,000 minimum wage, insisting that the current rate had been overtaken by economic realities.
A top official told Daily Sun that some state governments such as Imo and Ebonyi approving higher wages for workers shows that the Federal Government has no excuse to keep paying N70,000.
“Some governors have begun to acknowledge our demands and realise that you cannot run a successful economy when the income of the people is low. Lagos was paying N85,000 as the highest, but Imo and Ebonyi have gone far above that, proposing to pay over a hundred thousand. That is to say that they identify with what we have been saying.
“The Federal Government can no longer hide under the excuse of fiscal austerity. If the state governments are doing it, then the Federal Government should be able to do it,” he stated.
The labour leader explained that the N70,000 minimum wage agreed last year was conditional as it was tied to the government’s promise not to raise petrol prices and to shorten the review cycle to three years.
“Part of our agreement is that we would negotiate minimum wage every three years instead of the previous five years. Another condition was that the price of petrol would not be increased because Mr President said, ‘if you want us to increase minimum wage to N250,000 we will but, the price of fuel will go up,’ and since we were concerned about the plight of the ordinary Nigerian and we did not not want the micro economic conditions to be destabilised, we agreed on the N70,000, but no sooner had the agreement been reached than the government hiked the price of petrol. That is why you keep hearing us say we were betrayed. Since the government has breached the agreement, they must increase the minimum wage so that there can be a balance,” he said.
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He warned that keeping wages low would have far-reaching economic consequences, including reduced purchasing power, declining sales for manufacturers, retrenchments and pressure on the banking sector.
“When income is low, purchasing power reduces, which in turn, affects manufacturers because they face consumer resistance. They are forced to cut down on employment and begin to default on bank loans. This becomes another problem for the financial sector. But when workers’ salaries are increased, they spend locally, which directly impacts the economy,” he explained.
The Congress dismissed the Federal Government’s fiscal austerity arguments, stressing that even the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has supported labour’s position.
“NECA, which also pays salaries, has said that there is no excuse for the N70,000 the Federal Government is paying workers,” he added.
The union vowed to continue mobilising support locally and internationally to secure a higher wage for Nigerian workers across the country.
“We will keep talking and mounting pressure until more states and the Federal Government do the right thing. We are putting pressure on the relevant people, including ministers, using our contacts at the National Assembly and even our international networks. We are deploying all the tools at our disposal to get what we want. It could come as a wage award or salary increase, but what matters is that workers must be paid better,” the official said.
