The Anambra state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has described the current national minimum wage as laughable, stressing that it could no longer buy a bag of rice. It reasoned that it was wicked for any state government to contemplate cutting down workers’ pay at this time of economic hardship.
The NLC Chairman in Anambra state, Mr. Jerry Nnubia, stated this on Tuesday during a rally in solidarity with Nasarawa state workers who were allegedly killed by the police while protesting against the slice in wages by the state government on July 29.
According to Nnubia, “We are here today to show solidarity with our members in Nasarawa state who were killed and injured by overzealous policemen at the gate of government house, Nasarawa for opposing slice in their salary by the state governor, Tanko Al-Makura.
“Why should workers be victims of every economic doom? When we have economic boom nobody remembers workers.
“A bag of rice today is N23,000 or more and their minimum wage is N18,000. This is laughable.
“Why haven’t the governors sliced their wages and those of their aides?
“Our position is that any governor that can’t pay workers’ salaries should resign.
“Is it not laughable that the same salary paid when a bag of rice was sold for N9, 000 is the same salary that is paid when a bag of rice is sold for N23,000 or more?” the chairman said, adding that the slashing of anybody’s salary at a time like this is not only wicked but criminal.
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