Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),
says the federal government’s announcement of a pay rise for civil servants is
mischievous.
On Tuesday, the federal government approved a pay rise of
between 25 and 35 percent for civil servants across various consolidated salary
structures.
Speaking on Wednesday during an interview on Sunrise Daily,
a Channels Television programme, Ajaero said the last minimum wage of N30,000
expired on April 18.
“We should be in the regime of new minimum wage as of today.
Discussions were supposed to have been concluded,” Ajaero said.
“The federal
government through the national assembly legislated on it. But we saw that the
discussion entered voice mail because the federal government refused to
reconvene the meeting that was adjourned.
“I think the announcement now appears mischievous because
there is no wage increase that government is announcing. For them to announce
it now, it is an issue that we are worried about at the NLC and even at the
TUC.”
BREAKDOWN OF LIVING
WAGE
Ajaero further said organised labour has agreed on N615,000
as the living wage for civil servants.
“Living wage is such that will, at least keep you alive. It
is not a wage that will make you poor and poorer. It is not a wage that will
make you borrow to go to work. It is not a wage that will lead you to be in the
hospital everyday because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried
to look at N615,000,” he added.
“Let me give you a breakdown of how we arrived at that
figure. We have housing and accommodation of N40,000. We asked for electricity
of N20,000 — of course that was before the current tariff increase. Nobody can
spend this amount currently. We have utility that is about N10,000. We looked
at kerosene and gas that is about N25,000 to N35,000.
“We looked at food for a family of six, that is about N9,000
in a day. For 30 days, that is about N270,000. Look at medical, N50,000
provided there will be no surgery or whatever.
“For clothing, we looked at N20,000. For education, N50,000.
I don’t know for those who tried to put their children in private school, they
will not be able to cope with this amount. We also have sanitation of N10,000.
“I think where we have another bulk of the money is
transportation. This is because the workers stay in the fringes and because of
the cost of PMS, that amounted to N110,000.
“That brought the whole living wage to N615,000 and I want
anyone to subject this to further investigation and find out whether there will
be any savings when you pay somebody on this rate.”
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