Following the ripple effect of the devaluation of Nigeria’s currency, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday said it has initiated the process of demanding wage increase for workers in the New Year.
The TUC also said it is being pushed to the wall with the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on the floor of the National Assembly, saying the government and the National Assembly would soon begin to see the reaction from the union and Nigerians.
The naira was weakened weeks ago by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) following depleted oil price and the government’s policy on austerity.
The National President of the TUC, Bobboi Kaigama, who disclosed this at the end of the National Executive Council meeting of the body in Lagos, said it has become necessary to increase workers’ wages because the current devaluation is now taking its toll negatively on Nigerian workers.
He said currently, the country is witnessing inflation as a result of the devaluation and the Nigerian workers need their salaries upped to meet the inflation.
“The issue of wage is a dynamic thing. In stabilised economies, wages are directly proportional to the inflation trend of that country,” Kaigama said.
“So, it is expected that following the devaluation of the naira and its resultant rise in inflation, salaries of workers should automatically be increased too. But in this country, even after devaluation of the currency, there will not be any increase in workers’ salary and that is bad.
“The moment devaluation is put in place the prices of goods and services surge, there should be a proportional increase in the workers’ pay. If the issue on devaluation persists, the Congress will have no option but to enter the New Year with a demand for increase in workers’ pay.”
Like Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos suggested recently, the TUC President said the fall in crude oil price in the international market should also translate into a fall in the price of refined products in Nigeria.
One of the reasons given by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s government for removing subsidy in 2012 was that apart from corruption, the international price for the product had gone up.
Kaigama said the price of petrol should now sell at N50 per litre instead of the N97 per litre officially.
According to him, if the government says that the price of crude oil has fallen in the global market, it means that the price of products will also fall in the country adding that “if truly we are working with the dynamics of market principles, we expect that the price of products should drop. We want N50 per litre for oil.”