 has criticised the federal government’s pay raise announced Tuesday as a deception to deflect from its failure to complete talks on increasing the national minimum wage.){kind=link}
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has criticised the federal government’s pay raise announced Tuesday as a deception to deflect from its failure to complete talks on increasing the national minimum wage.
Joe Ajaero, the president of NLC, said the announcement Tuesday was “mischievous.” Another labour leader dismissed the move as “a waste of time.”
On Tuesday, the government announced 25% to 35% wage increase for public workers, including police, military and intelligence personnel amid unprecedented inflation and cost-of-living crisis.
The wage increases will be backdated to Jan. 1, the government said. Pensioners will get a 28% raise effective from the same date.
Inflation reached 33.2% in March, the highest in almost 30 years. Food inflation crossed 40% the same month.
Prices increases worsened after President Bola Tinubu haphazardly removed petrol subsidy last May and his government followed up with multiple devaluation of the naira, all without adequate planning.
With millions facing an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, labour unions have long demanded higher wages but the government’s response has been slow. Instead, it approved an increase in electricity tariff last month.
Across the country, only the Edo state government has announced a new minimum wage of N70,000.
“Voice Mail”
The NLC said the government came up with a measly wage increase after delaying talks with workers on a new minimum wage.
Mr Ajaero said the last minimum wage of N30,000 expired on April 18, and discussions on a new minimum wage were supposed to have concluded. Instead, the government conveniently let the talks slip into “voice mail” mode, refusing to reconvene the adjourned meeting.
“I think the announcement now appears mischievous,” Mr Ajaero said Wednesday during an interview on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme.
“There is no real wage increase that the government is announcing. For them to announce it now, is an issue that we are worried about at the NLC and even at the TUC.”
“We should be in the regime of new minimum wage as of today. Discussions were supposed to have been concluded.
“The federal government through the national assembly legislated on it. But we saw that the discussion entered voice mail because the federal government refused to reconvene the meeting that was adjourned.”
How NLC arrived at its proposed minimum wage
Mr Ajaero said the organized labour has agreed that the minimum living wage for workers should be N615,000.
“Living wage is such that will, at least keep you alive. It is not a wage that will make you poorer and poorer,” he said. “It is not a wage that will make you borrow to go to work. It is not a wage that will lead you to be in the hospital every day because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried to look at N615,000.”
Mr Ajaero explained how they arrived at the figure:
- Housing and accommodation – N40,000
- Electricity (pre-tariff hike) – N20,000
- Utilities – N10,000
- Food for a family of six – N9,000 per day, totalling N270,000 per month
- Medical expenses – N50,000 (assuming no surgeries)
- Clothing – N20,000
- Education – N50,000
- Sanitation – N10,000
- Transportation – N110,000 (with the rising cost of petrol)
“That brought the whole living wage to N615,000 and I want anyone to subject this to further investigation and find out whether there will be any savings when you pay somebody on this rate,” he said.
The NLC’s assistant general secretary, Chris Onyeka, had earlier dismissed the gesture as a waste of time, according to Daily Trust.
“What they pretend to have done is a waste of time. It does not amount to anything for us and those in the federal civil service,” he was quoted as saying.
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