The Organised Labour has given the Federal Government May 31 deadline to come up with a realistic and reasonable new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
Labour made this known during the Workers’ Day celebrations at the Eagle Square in Abuja on Wednesday.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero; and his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo were unanimous that the N30,000 current minimum wage has been grossly insufficient for Nigerian workers in the light of current economic realities and inflationary pressure including food inflation, hike in energy and transportation cost, amongst others.
They insisted that a new living wage of N615,000 be expeditiously approved by the President Bola Tinubu administration before the end of May.
Ajaero said, “The Nigeria Labour Congress and the TUC have made it clear and emphatically that should the minimum wage negotiation continue and linger till the end of May, we can no longer guarantee industrial harmony in this country.”
On his part, Osifo asked the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and power distribution companies to immediately reverse the current increase in electricity tariff for Band A customers.
“The NLC and TUC hereby advise NERC and power sector operators to reverse the last increase in electricity tariff within the next one week,” the trade union boss said.
Nigerians mark this year’s May Day amid spiralling and unending snake-like queues at filling stations as scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol worsens across the Federation.
Although there have been assurances by the major oil supplier in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to alleviate this issue, however, the queues have persisted for over one week.
