Tony Okafor, Awka
The Labour Party( LP) has promised Nigerian workers of at least N80,000 minimum wage if its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, wins in the 2023 general elections.
The Deputy National Chairman of the LP, Ayo Olorunfemi, said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.monitored by our correspondent.
Olorunfemi said the party was looking at implementing N80,000 to 100,000 as the new minimum wage depending on the job as against the present N30,000 which he said did not reflect the reality of Nigerians.
Explaining further, the deputy LP chairman said, “It depends on the nature of the job that would be given out. For instance, when you take a cursory look at the manual labourer out there, he does not take less than N2,500-N3,000 per day which is still not okay as far as the reward system is concerned. If you divide N3,000 by six hours, you will be talking about N500 per hour.
“So, when you benchmark that against what we have now, certainly you would be talking of something within the range of N500-N1,000 per hour depending on the nature of work, and at the end of the day, someone can effectively say that he can make up to N4,000 in a day.
“And when you multiply N4,000 in a day by 20 or 25, we are talking about N80,000 or N100,000 in a month. N80,000-N100,000 that is exactly where we are going.
“The Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have been brought in and plans are underway. When we get there you would see how this thing would work and I can assure you that Nigerian workers will be happier.
We don’t have to expose how it will be implemented before they mess it up.”
Obi had in his manifesto released recently said he would resolve the national minimum wage problem by doing away with the extant salary structure and introducing an hourly productivity-based national minimum rate, by which public and private sector employers should pay employees based on their actual productivity.”
Obi in the manifesto said his administration would criminalise non-payment of salaries, wages, pensions, entitlements, benefits, and violation of collective bargaining agreements.
