Regina Otokpa 
Barely 24 hours after the Federal Government adjusted the salary structures of civil servants by 25 per cent and 35 per cent, organised Labour has vowed to cripple all activities nationwide, should the Federal Government fail to conclude negotiations on a new minimum wage by the end of May.
This was a unanimous position contained in a May Day address read by the Presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Joe Ajaero and Comrade Festus Osifo respectively, yesterday in Abuja, where a mammoth crowd of workers had gathered to celebrate the annual Workers’ Day celebration.
Leadership of the labour movements, who placed their members on the alert to ensure that the process was not sabotaged, noted that after placing an offer of N615, 000 as a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers, labour was still awaiting a counter offer from the government, represented by the National Minimum Wage Negotiation Committee.
The duo said: “At this point comrades, we want to inform you that the process of fixing a new national minimum wage is still continuing.
All the parties in the tripartite process are well represented and the engagement has been robust. We have placed our demand of N615,000 before our social partners while we await their offer.
“Remember that earlier in the year, we sent questionnaires to all of you across the nation with which we sought to measure the actual cost of living for an average family of six.
Your response to that questionnaire which you also administered across the 776 LGAs assisted us in arriving at the figure with minor adjustments.
“Placed before them also is our demand that the new act shall have a two-year life with an agreement for automatic adjustment in wages any time inflation exceeds 7.5%. We have also demanded that every employer with up to five workers in his employ shall pay the new minimum wage and have also asked for the strengthening of monitoring and compliance mechanisms to penalise non-complying state governments.
“We have done this with the understanding that Nigerian workers deserve to have a national minimum wage that approximates to a living wage. Our figures are based on objective realities around the nation and not based on some fantasy but on what confronts us as workers around the nation.
We hope that our social partners will see the reality of what we have done and the demands that represent our basic needs to expedite action so that the process will come speedily to an end given the painstaking effort we have put across the nation.
We want to be able to buy rice, beans, bread, housing, clothes, pay school fees, Medicare, pay electricity bills etc. Any wage that is below the living wage condemns workers to starvation and we are sure that our social partners would not want that.
“If, however, the negotiation of the National Minimum wage is not concluded by the end of May, the Trade Union Movement in Nigeria will no longer guarantee industrial peace in the country.” The TUC president, who further clarified Labour’s position, noted that: “If by the end of the month nothing is done, we are going to push.
You know we have several tools that can be used to compel them to do what is needed.” The Labour leaders regretted that many of President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies run counter to constitutional imperatives and as such, have plunged millions of Nigerians into abject poverty.
Disturbed over the 300% hike in electricity tariff and epileptic power situation which was negatively affecting the nation’s economic growth, Labour appealed to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and power sector operators to reverse the increase in electricity tariff within one week.
The Labour leaders, who regretted that the over a decade privatisation of the power sector has not witnessed any positive change, said it was critical for the government to establish frameworks that would ensure energy works for all Nigerians.
