The Labour Party has appealed to President Bola Tinubu’s government to expedite actions to address Nigerian workers’ requests within the seven-day window to renegotiate the new minimum wage.

“A paltry minimum wage of N30,000 for Nigerian workers, or should we say the N60,000 being proposed, is far too low to survive in this country. A bag of rice is about N80,000 now. Nigerians cannot even touch pepper and tomatoes now,” said the party’s spokesman, Olubunmi Odesanya, on Wednesday in Lagos.

Ms Odesanya said, “Basically, the request of the workers should be addressed. We are not saying the federal government should pay N494,000 as minimum wage, but they should seriously look at their request.

“Both the government and the labour union should come to a midpoint to reflect today’s realities. Nigerian workers deserve more than they are getting currently because of the country’s inflation rate, which is over 33.3 per cent.”

According to her, the cost of living for workers and Nigerians has increased so much that many are struggling to survive the current economic crisis.

She said the government at all levels must do more to reduce the cost of governance to obtain more funds to alleviate the people’s suffering.

Ms Odesanya urged Nigeria’s elected and appointed leaders to sacrifice more for the masses.

The impasse between organised labour and the federal government on the new minimum wage for workers led to the strike declared by labour unions on Monday, which grounded the nation’s economy.

However, with the federal government’s expression of commitment to raising the proposed minimum wage of N60,000 at a meeting with labour leaders on Monday evening, the organised labour on Tuesday afternoon announced suspension of the industrial action for a week.

It was reported that the government and the organised private sector had initially proposed N48,000, then N54,000 and N57,000, all rejected by labour.

The organised labour had also proposed N615,000 as new minimum wage, but later reduced it to N497,000 and then to N494,000, to reflect the current rising cost of living.

(NAN)