"Doesn't Make Sense": Trade Union Blasts FG's N48k Minimum Wage Proposal, Walks Out of Meeting

• The Nigerian Trade Union Congress has expressed its dislike of how the federal government has been handling the minimum wage negotiation
• The union, which is proposing a sporadic increase from N33k to N615k, was stunned by the government counter-proposal
• The union sees the government's advancement as a mockery of the intelligence of millions of Nigerian workers

The president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, has strongly criticised the federal government's proposal of N48k as the new minimum wage.

The union regards the government's offer as an unrealistic pay that cannot sustain an average Nigerian.

The union's proposal for a new minimum wage is N615k, and it is backed by a breakdown of how it came up with that number.

Osifo, who spoke on Channels Television on Wednesday, May 15, described the government as not serious and as not showing readiness and willingness to listen to the nation's workers' requests.

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He said it was downright illogical to be proposing N48k when the least worker is already earning N77k.

The union asked the government to make public the data and statistics it used to develop the pay proposal.

TUC walks out of meeting

After what the union perceived as unseriousness from the government, who was resolute on the N48k offer, pissed by their unwillingness to hear out the union, the Osifo delegation, with other members of the Labour Union, walked out of the negotiation meeting.

He said:

“Before President Muhammadu Buhari left office, the last person in the federal ministry was actually earning N42,000. If you now factor in the wage award of N35,000 that was given, N42,000 plus N35,000 will give us N77,000, so as of today what the least federal government worker earns is N77,000. So, the question that we now ask is that if the least federal government worker is earning N77,000, why are you now coming to present N48,000? It does not just make any sense"

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Osifo asserted that the government must back up its proposal with data before it can be given an audience.

He warned that all negotiations have to end on or before the end of May.

Labour Unveils Demand as Protests Start Across Nigeria

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the organised labour, under the auspices of the NLC and TUC, has asked the Bola Tinubu government to reverse the hike in electricity tariff to N65/kWh.

NLC directed its state branches and affiliates to mobilise their members to commence picketing the offices of Discos and NERC nationwide from Monday, May 13.

Proofread by Kola Muhammed, journalist and copyeditor at Legit.ng

Source: Legit.ng