Trade Union Congress Demands N200,000 Minimum Wage Before June Ends

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, demanded the payment of a new minimum wage of N200,000 monthly. It also demanded that the Government reverted to the old N185 pump price of petrol per litre to allow for a conducive environment for negotiation.

In a statement, the President and Secretary General, Festus Osifo and Nuhu Toro of the TUC said: “For immediate implementation: Status quo ante of PMS pump price should be maintained while discussion continues. The minimum wage should be increased from the current N30,000 to N200,000 before the end of June 2023, with consequential adjustments on the cost of living allowance, COLA, like feeding, transport, housing, etc. A representative of State Governors will be party to this communiqué and all the Governors must commit to implement the new minimum wage.

“There should be Tax holidays for employees both in Government and private sector that earn less than N200,000 or 500 USD monthly whichever is higher. PMS allowance to be introduced for those earning between N200,000 and N500,000 or 500USD to 1,200USD whichever is higher.

“The exchange rate for retailing PMS in the country must be kept within a limit of two per cent for the next 10 years where the fluctuation is more than two per cent, the minimum wage will automatically increase at the same rate.

“Set up of intervention fund where the Government will be paying N10 per litre on all locally consumed PMS. The primary purpose of this fund is to solve perennial and protracted national issues in education, health and housing. A governance structure that will include labour, civil society and government will be put in place to manage the implementation.

“Federal government should provide mass transit vehicles for all categories of the populace. State governments should immediately set up a subsidised transportation system to reduce the pressure on workers and students. The framework around this will be worked out.

“Visitation of the refineries that are currently undergoing rehabilitation to ascertain the state of work and setting up a timeline for its completion.

“The President should direct whoever will be Labour Minister to immediately constitute the National Labour Advisory Council, NLAC. This platform will be used by the Government, labour and employers to discuss issues and policies of the government that may affect workers and all other mandates as specified in the law.

“Provision of subsidy directly for food items, the $800million could be a first step. The existing National Housing Fund, NHF, should be made accessible to genuine workers; the framework on this must be discussed and agreed. There should also be an immediate review of the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover more Nigerians and prevent stock of drugs”.

TUC also said the medium term would include the “deployment of Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, across the country, in line with the earlier promise made by the Government. The framework and timeline will be developed and agreed by both parties.

It added among other agreements that Labour and Government should design a framework that will be geared towards the reduction of the cost of governance by 15 per cent in 2024 and 30 per cent by 2025.