TUC Rejects FG’s N70,000 Wage Allowance, Demands Salary Review

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has rejected the Federal Government’s proposed N70,000 wage allowance, insisting it would not adequately address the economic challenges facing Nigerian workers.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Programme Politics Today on Wednesday, the TUC President, Festus Osifo, said the union’s position was informed by the experience of the 2023 wage award, which he said failed to deliver the intended relief to many federal workers.

Osifo explained that the government does not need to renegotiate the national minimum wage to improve workers’ salaries, stressing that the minimum wage and salary increments are two different issues.

According to him, while minimum wage represents the lowest legally permissible wage, there is no corresponding maximum wage that prevents employers, including the government, from increasing workers’ salaries.

Osifo, who said he had spent more than 20 years in the private sector, noted that workers joining organisations such as banks are generally paid above the minimum wage, demonstrating the distinction between minimum wage and actual salary structures.

He said governments could independently review workers’ salaries to reflect prevailing economic realities without waiting for another minimum wage negotiation.

“Minimum wage is minimum, but there is no maximum wage,” Osifo said, arguing that government could increase workers’ salaries whenever necessary to improve their welfare.

He cited some states that had raised their minimum wage from N70,000, N75,000 and N80,000 to as much as N100,000, saying there was no law preventing employers from paying above the statutory minimum.

The TUC president said the union had clearly communicated its position to the Federal Government in a letter dated October 8, requesting a wage increment, improvement and upward review rather than another temporary wage award.

He explained that the government had proposed a wage award, but the union rejected the proposal because of the shortcomings experienced with the 2023 arrangement.

Osifo recalled that an agreement reached with the government on October 2, 2023, provided for a N40,000 wage award pending the implementation of a new minimum wage.

However, he alleged that some federal workers did not benefit from the payment, while others received the allowance inconsistently, with some getting two months’ payment, others three months and some four months.

“We sincerely think that what has been put on the table will not address the plight of the workers because the one they put on the table in 2023 did not work,” he said.

Osifo maintained that rather than returning to what he described as an ineffective temporary arrangement, the government should engage the unions on a sustainable wage improvement that would apply to workers’ salaries and adequately respond to the prevailing economic situation.

He stressed that the TUC’s demand was for a comprehensive and sustainable upward review of workers’ wages, rather than another wage award that could fail to provide lasting relief.