The organized labour says it’s no longer necessary for the government to wait for three or five years before increasing the minimum wage of Nigerian workers.
Organized labour wants the minimum wage for workers in Nigeria adjusted on a yearly basis.
The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, who made the disclosure on Wednesday, said the minimum wage of workers in the country should reflect the rising inflation.
According to him, the government should increase the current ₦70,000 minimum wage paid to workers in Nigeria, and this should be done on a yearly basis while factoring the inflation level in the country.
Osifo added that the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congres (NLC), have begun talks towards actualizing this demand.
“What we are pushing on for Labour is that instead of you (the government) waiting for five years to increase the minimum wage, you will now look at the inflation of the last five years and try to make some adjustments, why can’t we reflect the inflation on an annual basis?
“For example, we have entered January 2025, by the 15th of January 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics is going to release the inflation figure for December.
“So, what we are pushing for as Labour is that, if for example, the inflation figure is 35%, apply that 35% to the ₦70,000 minimum wage so that it will become reflective of what the true value is.
“When we get to 2026, you will also do similar application. That is actually what we are pushing. We shouldn’t be waiting for five years.
“In the new Act now is three years to do those adjustments but we could be doing them systemically by applying the inflation as of December of the preceding year to what the minimum wage is.
“This is part of the position that we are also going to canvass this year. We started the conversation last year but we will continue it in 2025,” the TUC boss said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on January 1, 2025.
OsunDailyNG recalls that the government of President Bola Tinubu had, in Jul 2024, agreed on a new minimum wage of ₦70,000 for Nigerian workers after a protracted negotiation with organized labour in the country.
As part of the agreement, President Tinubu disclosed that wage reviews would no longer be done every five years, but would now be done every three years.
