A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank has cautioned the organised labour against accepting what he described as “Starvation Wage’’ from the federal government.
He said the labour union should reject any minimum wage offer from the federal government that is less than N250,000.
He noted that the workers are the engine room of the nation’s economy, adding that paying them a living wage would boost their morale to work diligently.
Frank in a statement issued Friday stressed that the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government ought to reduce their salaries and allowances to accommodate Nigerian workers who could barely afford one meal a day rather than increasing their take home which is already over bloated and economically, financially and socially suffocate workers.
He accused the President Bola Tinubu-led administration of double standards in the fixing of salaries, saying what is good for judicial office holders is good for Nigerian workers.
Frank noted that if the Bill to increase the salary of judges by 300 per cent could be hurriedly passed in the two chambers of the national assembly, he wondered why the same could not be done for workers.
He said: “How can you increase the salary of an arm of government that is already earning a humongous salary by 300 per cent and add peanuts to the paltry N30,000 that workers have been compelled to live with in this country as minimum wage in the last five years?
“Why did the President send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to effect a 300 per cent upward review in the salaries of Judicial Office Holders but set up a tripartite committee to negotiate a “starvation wage” (apologies to NLC President Joe Ajaero) for suffering Nigerian workers instead of a “living wage” he promised them on assumption of office in May last year?”
“Any amount below N250,000.00 cannot be considered a decent wage for Nigerian workers considering the present socio-economic hardship in the country.
He therefore urged the leadership of organized labour to be resolute in their demand to ensure that workers get a deserved living wage at this time in the Nation’s developmental journey.