THE Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have listed conditions for the proposed review of the national minimum wage.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had said the Federal Government will soon make a pronouncement on salary increase for civil and public servants to cushion the effect of rising inflation.
Reacting to the proposed review on Wednesday, Deputy President, NLC, Joe Ajaero, said government, employers and labour unions must meet to review the minimum wage before increment is considered.
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He noted that prices of consumables had been on the rise and if not checked, any increase on the minimum wage might not be effective.
“As we speak now, the price of kerosene, cooking gas, a litre of fuel, any of this items, multiply their cost by 30 days, it is more than the current 30,000 minimum wage.
“It is not necessarily the amount of money or quantum you are going to put that will solve our problem. You have to check the rate at which this items are going up, or else within a day or two the money will be used up,” he said.
According to Ajaero, continuous rise in inflation will not assuage the devaluation of the currency and take-home pay of workers even though there is an increase in salaries.
He stated that inflation rate must be put in check by making it stay at a constant rate.
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had earlier revealed that inflation rate jumped from 20.77 per cent in September to 21.09 per cent in October 2022.
According to NBS, the rising rate of inflation was caused by high energy costs, importation costs and surging food prices, among others.
On a year to year basis, in October 2022, the urban inflation was 21.63 per cent, 5.11 per cent higher compared to the 16.52 per cent recorded in October 2021.
Nigeria’s inflation rate surged to 20.52 per cent in August, the highest since September 2005.