- Osifo noted that increased revenue allocation to the state government since May last year is sufficient incentive to review an upward review for the worker’s minimum wage.
- The TUC president said organized labour has proposed an N615,000 minimum wage for workers.
Festus Osifo, president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), says that increasing the workers’ minimum wage will not increase inflation.
Osifo said this on ‘Morning Brief’, a programme on Channels Television, on Wednesday.
He said that there is enough justification to examine an increase in the minimum wage for workers given the state government’s increased revenue allocation since May, 2023.
The TUC president said organized labour has proposed an N615,000 minimum wage for workers.
“If you look today, from May 2023 to date, revenue from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to the state government has tripled,” he said.
“This means the state government has more money to build roads and schools to purchase other items. The most critical aspect of production is labour. It is for you to take part of the money and pay workers. That won’t increase inflation because the money will be spent anyhow; if you don’t give it to workers, it will be spent on other projects.
“Giving workers what is due them won’t necessarily increase inflation.”
Osifo’s remarks comes in the midst of extreme economic hardship as Nigeria observes International Workers’ Day in 2024 alongside the rest of the globe.
But on April 30, the federal government approved an increase of between 25 percent and 35 percent salary increase for civil servants on the six consolidated salary structures.
Recall that the federal government set up a 37-member tripartite committee on the minimum wage.
Subsequently, organised labour submitted a demand of N615,000 as the new minimum wage for workers, and urged the government to announce the new minimum wage on Workers’ Day.
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