Pipe dream? Labour ups its minimum wage demand to ‘above N56,000’

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has reviewed its minimum wage demand upwards to now stand at “above N56,000” in its latest presentation to the tripartite committee on minimum wage, despite clear signals from government that even its previous lower ask was beyond reach.

The NLC stated that its new demand was to reflect inflation and other economic realities in the country.

The acting NLC President, Kiri Mohammed, disclosed this at the 11th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Civil Service Union on Thursday in Abuja.

Mohammed, who declined to mention the exact figure the organised labour now demanded, explained that it was a joint decision between the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

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He said, “We submitted our request, NLC has decided to look at the figure and modify it, we actually modified it, an upward review above N56,000, but I am not going to tell you how much because the president (Ayuba Wabba) is supposed to say it.

“We have submitted it to the secretariat of the tripartite committee. The review is in conjunction with the TUC. You can’t do it alone, all of us met and decided to put heads together and look at the realities on the ground.”

Nigerian workers may find very little cheer in this news as the process to review the minimum wage has suffered from frustrating gradualism, if any movement at all, in what some critics of the Muhammadu Buhari administration have described as a ploy to delay the process until the demand fizzled out.

 

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