…accuses Governors for obstructing demands
By Hope-Feyisayo Temitope
Organised labour has pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to demonstrate his love for Nigerian workers and approve its demand of N250,000 minimum wage to reflect the present inflationary trend in the country’s economy.
A member of the organised labour negotiating team in the Tripartite Committee of the New National Minimum Wage and President-General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Prince Adewale Adeyanju, accused state governors of stalling efforts at achieving a reasonable wage for public workers.
He expressed his displeasure to the approach of the FG towards the minimum wage, saying FG made negotiation with the union as if it were ‘tomatoes and onions’, before reaching N62,000, saying he could only approve what the economy can afford.
“The ball now lies on the table of Mr President who I believe that this is an opportunity to show empathy to the whole workers. This minimum wage comes every five year. Between now and five years, what is going to be the impact of the figure of a new minimum wage on the lives of the workers in their various working places.
”As organised labour, we all are citizens of this country and we know the economy can afford our demand. We plead that he should not listen to those greedy governors who want to pay slave wage to continue to maintain their outrageous and ostentatious lifestyle”.