Minimum wage: NLC demands N794,000; TUC, N497,000

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday, proposed N794,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers while the Trade Union Congress (TUC) advocated N497,000 during the South-West zonal public hearing on the National Minimum Wage held in Lagos.

The hearing, organised by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, was one of the six held simultaneously across the six geo-political zones of the country.

The Lagos State Chairman, NLC, Comrade Funmi Sessi, who proposed N794,000, said that the national minimum wage should remain on the exclusive list and the review should be every two years instead of five years.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Yemi Edun said the committee is interested in well-researched position papers that would aid an informed decision.

In a related development, the Northeast Zonal Public hearing on the Tripartite Committee on national minimum wage was held in Yola on Thursday, with one of the governors from the region proposing a new revenue-sharing formula.

The governor of Bauchi State, Bala Muhammed, proposed an increase in the minimum wage, calling for a new amount of N45,000 that would be enhanced with a review of the sharing formula.

He suggested that the federal government should receive 35%, the state should receive 40%, and the local government should receive 25%.

Gombe, Taraba, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno all had representatives at the hearing, with the first two states proposing N60, 000 and Adamawa proposing N45, 000 for their workers respectively.

Meanwhile the South-East chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), have proposed N540,000 and N447,000 respectively as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the organised labour of NLC and TUC made the proposal during the South-East Zonal hearing in Enugu.

Comrade Fabian Nwigbo, the Chairman, NLC Enugu State Chapter, noted that the value of the N30,000 minimum wage of 2019 had been eroded by inflation.