Labour: We won’t accept N100,000 as minimum wage

Organised Labour has declared that it won’t accept the Federal Government’s offer of N62,000 and the N100,000 minimum wage proposal by some individuals in the country.

The unions had demanded N250,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

“We felt that with the current economic hardship and the difficulty in the land, the sum of N250,000 should be what will be okay for the minimum wage,” the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, told journalists in Abuja on Friday, June 7, 2024.

Osifo made this known after the federal government said it offered the Labour N62,000 as the new national minimum wage.

Speaking in an interview with Channels TV on Monday, June 10, the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, said the unions won’t accept N62,000 or N100,000 as the minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

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Onyeka described the minimum wage proposal as a “starvation wage”, saying: “We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know can take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.

“We have never contemplated N100,000, let alone N62,000. We are still at N250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation.

“We are not just driven by frivolities but the realities of the marketplace, realities of things we buy every day: a bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”

The NLC official further disclosed that the Organised Labour would meet on Tuesday, June 11, to decide on the resumption of the nationwide strike if the federal government and National Assembly fail to act on workers’ demands.

The Star