By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The South-East chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), have offered reason for proposing N540,000 and N447,000, respectively, as new minimum wage for civil servants.
The proposal was made on Thursday, 7 March, 2024 during the South-East Zonal hearing organised by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage in Enugu State.
Speaking on behalf of the NLC in the region, Comrade Fabian Nwigbo, the Chairman, NLC Enugu State Chapter, opined that the value of N30,000 minimum wage which came into effect in 2019 had been eroded by inflation.
According to him, considering what is going on in the country, one should not be talking about N30,000 minimum wage anymore.
Nwagbo described the situation as very “unfortunate” stressing that Nigerian workers are allegedly the least paid in the entire West African countries.
“For us, we want to propose based on the prices of commodities in Nigeria. In 2019 when we had N30, 000 minimum wage, a paint bucket of garri was N280, rice and beans were about N450 each while fuel was N145.
“This has continued to subsist till today where a litre of fuel is now N750 to N800 depending on the location.
“In the current state, a paint bucket of rice is over N4000 and garri N2,500.
“While a two bedroom flat in Enugu that used to be N250, 000-N300,000 is over N650,000 at the suburb and in the city it stands at N1.2 million yearly,” he said.
