The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has made it known that the inflation rate of 18.17 per cent has reduced the value of the N30,000 minimum wage.
This was revealed by the Chairperson of NLC Lagos State Council, Funmi Sessi, in an interview, adding that the challenges faced by workers were enormous.
According to reports, she said the news of the minimum wage was no longer exciting to workers, considering the increase in prices of many items, as well as the increased electricity tariff.
Sessi made it known that, “The prices of items in the market have skyrocketed; from tomatoes to fuel, the price of everything has been increased. N30,000 minimum wage has lost its value”. “There is an economic downturn in Nigeria, which was not created by the workers but because of bad leadership and bad policies of our government.”
She added that, “Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a nightmare for the workers. We are praying that God intervenes, because the government does not have a plan for how the country would come out of the quagmire. In the public sector, an example is the Kaduna State governor, who has sacked about 50 per cent of the workforce in Kaduna. He lacks technical understanding of how he can come out of the economic downturn.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Osun State chapter of NLC, Jacob Adekomi, has reportedly attested to the fact that the pandemic affected the attendance of workers at their workplace.
According to him, “There was a time the government gave a sit-at-home order to decongest the secretariat; this affected the workers negatively. We are back to our workplace and everything is going on smoothly. We pray we do not witness such a thing again”.
He added that, “We are celebrating the achievements of workers. May Day is a celebration of workers’ achievements and a time to ask for more from the government like Oliver Twist”.
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