Again, organised labour unions vow to resume strike, reject 62,000 minimum wage

Nigeria’s organised Labour unions have rejected the proposed minimum wage of N62,000 or N100,000, describing it as a “starvation wage”.

Instead, they are demanding a minimum wage of N250,000, which they consider a living wage for an average Nigerian worker.

This was declared by Chris Onyeka, Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, while fielding questions on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday.

He stressed that the unions including the Trade Union Congress(TUC) are ready to resume the nationwide industrial action if the Federal Government and the National Assembly fail to act on their demands within the stipulated periods.

“Our position is very clear. We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.

“We have never contemplated N100,000 let alone N62,000. We are still at N250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation. We are not just driven by frivolities but the realities of the market place; realities of things we buy every day, bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.

“The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various facts of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.”

He continued: “If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the Organised Labour will meet to decide on what next.

“It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it.

“So, if you put a pause on something and the organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”