NLC members protest “anti-poor” people policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration in Abuja on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. Photo: Channels Television/Sodiq Adelakun
.Rejects N100,000 ‘Starvation Wage’
By Jamiu Adebayo
Nigerian economy to slide further with the Organised Labour’s threat to resume strike on Tuesday, following its refusal to accept any N62,000 or N100,000 “starvation wage” as the new minimum wage for workers.
It also insisted on the N250,000 it presented at the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage on Friday, as the living wage for an average Nigerian worker.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Assistant General Secretary,
Chris Onyeka, stated this on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday.
Labour said that it won’t accept the latest government’s offer, sressing, “We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home.
“We will not negotiate a starvation wage.
“We have never contemplated N100,000 let alone of 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 market place; realities of things we buy every day: bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”
Also read: NLC, TUC shutdown Abuja, Imo airports
Labour said that the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by the midnight of Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
It warned that should the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on the demands of workers by tomorrow (Tuesday), the organs of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action relaxed last week.
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