Labour Seeks Better Deal For Workers In 2017
The three Labour Centres in the country; the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, in their new year messages to workers and the general masses, were unanimous that 2016 was very difficult for workers and indeed, ordinary Nigerians.
They equally agreed that there are no or little signs that 2017 will be better either.
The trio are however seeking for improved living conditions for workers and other Nigerians, while promising to engage government where necessary to lessen the pains and suffering of workers and other Nigerians in the New Year.
To the NL C, the issue of ensuring improved pay package for workers in the form of a New National Minimum Wage, NNMW, in 2017 will be a litmus test of Labour movement, not just NLC.
According to Ayuba Wabba, President of NLC: “Since we submitted a written request for a new National Minimum Wage of N52,000 per month last year, the purchasing power of Nigerian workers has so depreciated that it is pure miracle that individuals on the existing minimum wage of N18000 are able to make ends meet in 30 days.
At the beginning of 2016, with the Naira at N197 to $1, the minimum wage was equivalent of $91.3.
At N495 to $1 this has in 12 months depreciated to $36.3. The May 2016 huge increase in price of fuel from N86 a litre to N145 a litre, and the attendant inflationary pressures, should have trigged an automatic increase in the minimum wage.
“With the erosion in the living standard of workers occasioned by the free fall of Naira, and the rising cost of living, we insist that we will not allow ourselves to be made the sacrificial lamb of the recession.
We will in the New Year redouble our efforts, using all available means at our disposal to get the Federal Government to constitute the tripartite panel to renegotiate a new minimum wage, which must be a living wage.”