The president of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Festus Osifo, has expressed the reasons the organized labour rejected the fresh ₦60,000 offered by the federal government as the minimum wage for workers.
The organised Labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) for the third time on Tuesday, May 29, rejected a fresh minimum wage proposal by the federal government.
The Nation reports that the government had initially proposed ₦48,000, ₦54,000, and ₦57,000 last week when the committee last met, all of which were rejected by Labour. While the Labour union on its part, shifted its position, going from ₦615,00 to ₦497,000 and finally ₦494,000.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV’s “Politics Today”, Osifo explained labour’s stance on the proposed minimum wage, arguing that the value of N60,000 today was significantly lesser than what could be obtained with N30,000 in the past due to the ample reduction in the purchasing power of the naira.
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He said: “The position of Labour has been very clear. Today the government came to the negotiation table: if you remember, the last time it was N57,000. So they moved it to N60,000. So when they moved to N60,000 the first thing we asked them was to kindly give a breakdown of the sum. How do you want a Nigerian to survive on this today? Somebody that is in Grade level one, step one; how will this person survive? Let’s assume this person is working in a Central area and he lives in Lugbe, Maraba, or Yanyan, can you kindly give us the breakdown? What is the cost of transportation that is embedded in this N60,000? What is the cost of feeding embedded in it? Give us that breakdown. They did not.
“But on the part of Labour from the beginning, we have been very consistent on this subject because we have been giving a breakdown on how we think a man that is married to a woman with four children will survive. Because for us, the president has promised from Day one that he was going to give Nigerians a living wage. You can go and read his inauguration speech and all the subsequent speeches he has made to the country. So, we kept drawing them there. But on their part, they did not give us that breakdown.
“If you look at today, N60,000 at about N1,500 exchange rate is about $40. If you look at the last two minimum wages, when we negotiated 18,000. N18,000 minimum wage in 2011 was equivalent to $125. Then N30,000 minimum wage in 2019, depending on the exchange rate you used was between $95 to $100. But you cannot give us $40 now because of the value. So, our problem is not the volume of money. So, you’ll hear N60,000 and think this is a huge amount of money. But the question is, what is the value of this money?
The TUC’s boss maintained that the nation’s currency has eroded, impacting substantially on its buying capacity.
“So N60,000 today cannot buy for us what N18,000 could buy for us in 2011 and what N30,000 could buy for us in 2019. So, that is the essence of discussing minimum wage. Minimum wage is to reinstate you to where you were previously, if not better. But where we are today is far away from it.”
Osifo went on to compare Nigeria with other African countries, particularly, Angola, which he noted recently, witnessed an increase in its minimum wage, equivalent to $120.
“I want to bring to your attention the fact that Angola just increased their minimum wage. Angola is a crude oil-producing nation like Nigeria. They moved their minimum wage to about 100,000 kwanza and that is equivalent to $120. This is just Angola. And the country is not the best in Africa. You could look at Libya, Morocco, Seychelles, and Mauritius.
Further illustrating labour’s position on the rejected N60,000 proposed minimum wage, Osifo said: “So, what we have told government, for Nigeria, with all the challenges that we are having today, $40 cannot take anybody home as it stands today and that is why on the part of labour, we rejected it. Because again, in accounting, in financial economics, there is what they call Net Present Value. You could do the Net Present Value of your N18,000 in 2011 or your N30,000 in 2019 and just have an idea of where we are today. So, we rejected it staunchly.”
According to the TUC boss, Labour strongly believes that if the government sits up, tightens all the loose ends, and does what other governments in different parts of the world are doing, “We believe that they can offer Nigerians a minimum wage. Just as demonstrated today in Angola and several countries in Africa.
“So for us, we are rejecting it; we are not there yet,” he added.
