NLC, TUC Propose N56,000 As New Minimum Wage

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The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) have jointly proposed and presented N56,000 as the new minimum wage to the Federal Government as against the present N18,000.

The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

“I can say now authoritatively that as of yesterday (Tuesday) we made a formal proposal to the Federal Government of N56,000 to be the new minimum wage.

“The demand has been submitted officially to the government and we hope that the tripartite system to look at the review will actually be put set up to look at it.

“Our argument is that, yes, it is true that the economy is not doing well, but the law stated that wages for workers must be reviewed after every five years.

“So, the issue must be looked into by the Federal Government and workers should not be seen as sleeping on their rights,” he said.

According to Wabba, the last review of the national minimum wage was done in 2011 and the setting up of a tripartite committee to review the newly proposed national minimum wage was long overdue.

According to him, the logic behind the new minimum wage is to ensure that no worker earns below what can sustain him or her 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 at that time was almost at N110 to the dollar.

“But as at today, the value of the naira to the dollar has been reduced; and there are the issues of inflation and purchasing power, among others to contend with,” Wabba said.

He, therefore, called on the government to ensure that the issue of the national minimum wage was urgently taken on board as way of fighting corruption in the country.

He said that if employers failed to cater for their workers’ welfare adequately, it would be difficult for such an employer to fight corruption.