Nigeria Labour Union Pushes for 56,000Naira Minimum Wage

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NLC presents 56,000 minimum wage proposal to FG

NLC President Aliyu Wabba


With the current economic realities in Nigeria today,the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is definitely not asking for too much by proposing a minimum wage of N56, 000 for Nigerian workers.
DailyTrust report says the NLC president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, yesterday;27 April, 2016 announced  to journalists in Abuja  that:
“I can say authoritatively that yesterday we made a formal demand of N56, 000 minimum wage to the federal government,” he said.
He admitted that though the economy is presently not doing well,  the  law stipulates that within a circle of five years the minimum wage should be reviewed.
He said the upward review of the minimum wage  was justifiable based on the issues of inflation  and reduction in the  purchasing power of the naira.
 Wabba said  it was obvious that workers had not fared well in the past one year and  the NLC had resorted  to work out a process of engagement on how those issues can be addressed.
Asked whether the federating states would be able to pay the new minimum wage in the face of dwindling federal allocations, Wabba said: “The logic behind the minimum wage is to ensure that no worker earns below what can  sustain him for a period of 30 days. You also know that when we negotiated the N18, 000 minimum wage, the value in terms of exchange rate was almost at $110 to the naira. Today, it has been reduced to virtually   nothing.   We don’t expect the present economic challenge to last forever. It is something that is transient. Economies will always go up and down.”
Wabba noted that the minimum wage is an issue that must come on board now if corruption should be addressed squarely.
“Without taking proper care of workers, it is very difficult to tackle corruption. That is why I said it’s a process and we are going to dialogue around that process. That is why collective bargaining is important. Remember that President Obama increased the US minimum wage when the US economy was in a recession, because his understanding is that people need to be empowered to have purchasing power. If manufacturers are producing and nobody is buying, the economy will be at a standstill because people don’t have the purchasing power. And that is the situation we are in now,” he said.
Source: Daily Trust

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