Tommy Etim Okon who is the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Deputy National President, has said it was not an easy fighting for organized labour before the federal government approved the ₦70,000 minimum wage.
Etim Okon said labour leaders lingered from ₦615,000 to ₦250,000 even when the private sector and federal government insisted on ₦62,000 submitted by the Tripartite Committee on New Minimum Wage.
On Thursday, in a brief interview, on NTA news at 9 pm, monitored by our reporter. The National President, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), said labour secured a win of three years review of minimum wage from President Tinubu even when they were not expecting it.
Oko said, “We the organized labour fought a good fight. From ₦615,000, we lingered, even when the government, private sector agreed to ₦62,000 minimum wage. But we felt that that wasn’t enough and we stood our ground for ₦250,000.”
He added that President Tinubu agree on a suitable living wage. “But you see the wisdom of Mr President meeting twice with organized labour shows that we were dogged in our fights.
Nigerian workers should know that it wasn’t an easy fight; taking cognizance of the situation and those indices we put in place to ensure that workers earn a living wage,” Okon said.
TUC deputy national president said, “We want us also salute the president for taking cognizance that three years frequency of review becomes very important because it was a proposal we were not looking at because even when the ₦30,000 minimum wage was considered in 2019, the five years frequency came into full.”
He said the new ₦70,000 minimum wage was not a bad idea, it was a 134 percent increase to the former minimum wage. He re-emphasized that the new minimum wage also has the advantage of a three-year review timeline.