The Trade Union Congress (TUC) says the N48,000 minimum wage that was recently proposed by the federal government is “abysmal”.
Festus Osifo, the president of TUC, whilst speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, pronounced that N48,000 cannot buy a bag of rice in the market today.
On Wednesday, a meeting called by the Nigerian government to talk about the national minimum wage ended suddenly after leaders of organised labour staged a walk-out.
Before the abrupt end of the meeting, the federal government proposed N48,000 as the new minimum wage but the organised private sector proposed the sum of N54,000.
The leaders of organised labour were extremely angry that the federal government did not provide a breakdown to support its proposal.
Labour has oftentimes proposed N615,000 as the acceptable minimum wage considering current economic realities.
Whilst speaking on the development, Osifo stated that the federal government is not serious with the negotiation.
Osifo also said the federal government failed to consider inflation and other economic challenges facing the citizenry.
The TUC chief added that if the federal government failed to proceed with the negotiation on the new minimum wage, organised labour will no longer guarantee industrial cooperation in the country.
“Before President Muhammadu Buhari left office, the last person in the federal ministry was actually earning N42,000,” he said.
“If you now factor in the wage award of N35,000 that was given, N42,000 plus N35,000 will give us N77,000. So, as of today, what the least federal government worker earns is N77,000.
“So, the question that we now ask is that if the least federal government worker is earning N77,000, why are you now coming to present N48,000? It does not just make any sense.
“If you look at the value of N48,000 today… when we negotiated N18,000 in 2011, it could buy more than two bags of rice. N30,000 in 2019 could buy at least one and half bag of rice.
“N48,000 today cannot buy a bag of rice. How can a man survive with N48,000?
“We will communicate to Nigerians because what they have put on the table is completely abysmal in this era of inflation and economic challenges.”
Currently, a 50kg bag of rice sells for between N75,000 and N85,000, depending on the variety.