Inflation has reduced minimum wage to nothing, says NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress has lamented the impact of inflation on the N30, 000 national minimum wage.

NLC President, Aliyu Wabba, noted that the wage, passed into law in 2019 by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had been reduced to nothing by inflation.

Wabba spoke during the 2021 Decent Work Round-Table discussion, to mark 2021 World Day for Decent Work with the theme: ‘The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health, Employment, Income and Gender Equality.’

He urged the Federal Government to adopt a National Employment Plan that will engender decent work in the country.

The NLC President said, “Today we know that the 30,000 minimum wage has been reduced to virtually nothing due to external effects of inflation in our system.”

Wabba said that the national employment plan was imperative in addressing the issue of peace and stability in the country.

“We also need jobs respect fundamental labour status, we need jobs that are sustainable. We need jobs that respect maximum working hours and jobs that can provide a decent minimum wage,” he submitted, adding that 70 per cent of Nigerians had their livelihood in the informal sector.

The NLC President also said casualisation of labour was a challenge and that seeking for employment has become perverse.

Wabba said, “I must use this opportunity to call on our government at all levels to adopt a national employment plan and I think decent employment which is a recipe to addressing the issue of peace and stability. Because youths can certainly be a tool to the hands of the people who are manipulative and this can be very dangerous to the society.

“As a country, unemployment must come to the centre stage in our recovery for COVID-plan.”

Credit: Punch