By Seun Opejobi
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, on Wednesday, described the salary increment approved by the Federal Government as mischievous.
Ajaero said that organized labour should agree on N615,000 as the living wage for civil servants in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had approved salary increments of 25 percent and 35 percent for the remaining six consolidated salary structures.
However, Ajaero said the last minimum wage of N30,000 expired on April 18.
Appearing on Channels Television, the NLC President said: “I think the announcement now appears mischievous because there is no wage increase that the government is announcing. For them to announce it now, is an issue that we are worried about at the NLC and even at the TUC.
“Living wage is such that will, at least keep you alive. It is not a wage that will make you poorer 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 every day because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried to look at N615,000.
“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 a utility that is about N10,000. We looked at kerosene and gas which 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 those who tried to put their children in private school if 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 on the fringes and because of the cost of PMS, which amounted to N110,000
This man is always making unrealistic demands.