Labour Accepted N70,000 Minimum Wage to Avert More Fuel Price Hike, Says Ajaero

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

More revelations have emerged on how the organised labour agreed to the new National Minimum Wage of N70,000.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, said organised labour had to back down on its demand for a N250,000 minimum wage for workers in order to prevent the federal government from further increasing the pump price of petrol.

Speaking on the BBC Pidgin English programme, Ajaero said the government gave the unions a condition that for it to agree to pay N250,000 as minimum wage, Nigerians should be ready for another hike in the price fuel.
“The reason we accepted the N70,000 was that the federal government told us that if they meet our demand of N250,000, they will be compelled to increase the price of fuel in the country.

“But because we know that if government is allowed to increase the price fuel further, it will cause more suffering for Nigerians.
“As labour, we don’t want Nigerian people to suffer more because of the high cost petroleum products, that was why we decided to accept that position so that Nigerians will not be made to suffer.”

Ajaero said the organised labour reasoned that even if the government approved the N250,000 as minimum wage because of the hike in petrol price, the workers would not benefit from the exercise.
He said the effort by Labour to get government to reverse the hike in electricity tariff did not yield expected result as the Distribution companies (DISCOs) had surreptitiously gone ahead to further raise the tariff.

Ajaero said the NLC had written to the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on the issue, adding it was taking its time in order to pursue many things at a time.
He also said that the labour movement has started mobilising for effective implementation of the new minimum wage when it is eventually signed into law.