Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, criticised the federal government led by Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s wage increase on Wednesday, calling it foolish.
Ajaero pushed for organised labour to unite in support of an N615,000 living wage for Nigerian public personnel.
Ajaero noted that although the government approved salary increases ranging from 25 to 35 percent across six unified salary structures, the N30,000 minimum wage that was in place before to April 18 had expired.
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The NLC President stated during an appearance on Channels Television: “I think the announcement now appears mischievous because the government is not announcing a wage increase.” We are concerned about this at the NLC and even at the TUC.
“Living wage is such that will, at least keep you alive. It is not a wage that will make you poorer and poorer. It is not a wage that will make you borrow to go to work. It is not a wage that will lead you to be in the hospital every day because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried to look at N615,000.
“Let me give you a breakdown of how we arrived at that figure. We have housing and accommodation of N40,000. We asked for electricity of N20,000 — of course, that was before the current tariff increase. Nobody can spend this amount currently. We have a utility that is about N10,000. We looked at kerosene and gas which is about N25,000 to N35,000.
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“We looked at food for a family of six, that is about N9,000 in a day. For 30 days, that is about N270,000. Look at medical, N50,000 provided there will be no surgery or whatever.
“For clothing, we looked at N20,000. For education, N50,000. I don’t know those who tried to put their children in private school if they will not be able to cope with this amount. We also have sanitation of N10,000.
“I think where we have another bulk of the money is transportation. This is because the workers stay on the fringes and because of the cost of PMS, which amounted to N110,000.
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