Gloria Robert, Abuja
The previous President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and ex-Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has declared that Nigerian employees immediately are poorer than their predecessors.
He made this assertion whereas addressing members of the Government Intelligence Administration Course 17 throughout a lecture organized by the Nationwide Institute of Safety Research in Abuja.
Oshiomhole highlighted the declining worth of Nigeria’s minimal wage, noting that the present minimal wage of N70,000 equates to solely $42 on the present change price of N1,650 per greenback.
Evaluating this to the preliminary minimal wage set throughout the administration of President Shehu Shagari in 1981, he identified that employees then earned N125, which was about $160.
“When the minimal wage in Nigeria was first set underneath President Shagari, it was round N125, about $160 a month,” Oshiomhole acknowledged. “Immediately, even with a 100% enhance final yr, the wage now equates to simply $42. Working persons are a lot poorer now than they have been many years in the past, and this loss in buying energy impacts their high quality of life.”
Oshiomhole urged the federal authorities and revenue-generating states to pay greater than the agreed N70,000 minimal wage, arguing that the present price doesn’t meet the fundamental financial wants of Nigerian employees.
He additionally known as for increasing minimal wage protection to incorporate home workers and workers of smaller companies, which might require modifications to present legal guidelines.
“The regulation presently applies solely to corporations with a minimal of 25 to 50 workers,” he defined. “In immediately’s economic system, the place small ICT corporations with fewer workers can generate substantial income, utilizing worker numbers as a criterion is outdated.”
