Following the devaluation of the Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Trade Union Congress, TUC, has announced that it would engage the federal government in 2015 to press for a raise in minimum wage.
This was contained in a statement on issued on Sunday by Bobboi Kaigama, National President of the Congress at the end of its National Executive Council meeting held in Lagos State.
Stating that the development has negative impacts on the earning powers of workers, Kaigama said, the issue of wage is a “Dynamic thing.” He added that in stabilised economies, “wages are directly proportional to the inflation trend of that country.”
Kaigama further contend that, “it is expected that following the devaluation of the naira and its resultant rise in inflation, salaries of workers should automatically be increased too.
“The moment devaluation is put in place the prices of goods and services surge, there should be a proportional increase in the workers’ pay.”
He said that for the issue of devaluation of the naira to persist means that the TUC will most likely enter the year 2015 with a “demand for increase in workers’ pay.’’
Also, the Congress President advised that the price of petrol be brought down to N50 per litre.
Kaigama said if the federal government claims that the price of crude oil has fallen in the global market, “it means that the price of petroleum products will also fall in the country. We want N50 per litre for oil.”
He argued that “If truly we are working with the dynamics of market principles, we expect that the price of products should drop.”
With this argument, the labour leader may gave however failed to consider the fact that Nigeria currently imports petroleum products and would have to do so with a devalued Naira.
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