The organized labour has reacted to the statement credited to the Nigeria Governors Forum stated that state governments cannot even afford to pay N60,000 minimum wage as “a few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month”.
In a statement by its acting director media and Press Affairs, Halima Ahmed Yakubu recently, the Governors said this amount for state workers nationwide is not sustainable owing to the current economic realities.
The Governors Forum explained that the State Government will spend all their FAAC allocations on just paying salaries with nothing left for development purposes and end up borrowing to pay workers every month.
They acknowledged the fact that, a new minimum wage is due and sympathized with the organized labour push for a higher wage but cautioned all parties in this important discussion to look beyond just signing a document for the sake of it adding that any agreement to be signed should be sustainable and realistic.
The organised labour who in a statement titled: Save the country from certain death”, alarmed, said, “We do believe the Governors have acted in bad faith. It is unheard of for such a statement be issued to the world in the middle of an on-going negotiation. It is certainly in bad taste.
“As for the veracity of their claim, nothing can be further from the truth as FAAC allocations have since moved from N700 billion to N1.2 trillion. making the governments extremely rich at the expense of the people”.
The labour said all that the governors need to do to be able to pay a reasonable national minimum wage (not even the N60,000) is cut on the high cost of governance, minimise corruption as well as prioritise the welfare of workers.
“We are not fixated with figures but value. Those who argue that moving the national minimum wage from N30,000 to N60,000 is sufficiently good enough miss the point.
“In 2019, when N30,000 became the minimum, N300 exchanged for $1 (effectively making the minimum wage an equivalent of $100 or thereabout) while inflation rate was 11.40. At the moment the exchange rate is at N1,600 to $1, inflation hovers at 33.7% (40% for food)”.
The labour said further, “This puts the value of the minimum wage at $37.5 for a family of six. This is happening at a time costs of everything rose by more than 400% as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy. This is an extreme bad news for the poor”.
The Congress noted that government’s policies of fuel subsidy removal, mindless devaluation of the Naira, energy tariff hike by 250% and interest rate hike by 26.5% will continue to hurt the economy (especially manufacturing sector) and the poor.
“Already manifest is the mass incapcity of Nigerians leading to overflowing warehouses of the productive sector of the economy. The downward trend will continue except the capacity of workers and businesses is enhanced”.
The labour submitted that paying a miserable national minimum wage portends grave danger to not only the workforce but the national economy as in truth, economies of most states are driven by workers wages, while urged the governors to do a re-think and save the country from a certain death.