The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has told the Federal Government that it does not need to wait for the next review of the national minimum wage before improving the salaries of its workers.
TUC President, Comrade Festus Osifo, said the government could independently increase the salaries of federal workers or raise the pay of the least-paid employees without waiting for a new Minimum Wage Act.
Osifo made the position known Wednesday evening while speaking at a press briefing in Abuja after the National Administrative Council (NAC) meeting of the labour centre.
According to him, the minimum wage should be regarded as a statutory wage floor and not a ceiling that prevents government or employers from paying workers substantially above the prescribed minimum.
He said, “Government does not even need to wait for a new Minimum Wage Act to be signed before government will take care of its workers.
“Government can wake up today and say, ‘Okay, I want to pay the least-paid worker in the Federal Government payroll N200,000,’ for example. They could say, ‘Let the least-paid worker be N400,000,’ for example, and graduate it upwards.
“Is that only the minimum wage for government to do that? No. That is not really the function of a minimum wage.”
Osifo argued that employers in several sectors already pay considerably above the statutory minimum, noting that the salaries of university graduates employed by banks, food and beverage companies and oil and gas firms are generally determined by the value of the jobs rather than the national minimum wage.
“If you are a university graduate and you are to be employed in a bank, are they going to start you from the minimum wage? The answer is no. The pay you will earn is much above minimum wage,” he said.
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He added that the same principle applied to major companies in the food and beverage sector.
“If you are a university graduate and you are to be employed in the food and beverage industry, if you are to be employed by Nestlé, if you are to be employed by Cadbury, they are not going to look at minimum wage,” he said.
The TUC president also cited the oil and gas sector, where he said companies such as Shell, Chevron and TotalEnergies would ordinarily negotiate remuneration based on the nature and value of the jobs rather than the statutory wage floor.
“They are going to be talking about living wage,” he said.
Osifo therefore urged the Federal Government to take immediate steps to improve workers’ incomes rather than leaving employees to wait for the next statutory minimum wage review.
He said TUC had already engaged government officials on the issue, including the Minister of Finance and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, as part of efforts to push for measures that would improve workers’ welfare.
“For us, you don’t really need a new minimum wage to take care of your employees in several sectors. That is not how it is done,” he said.
The labour leader also maintained that allowances could be reviewed independently of the minimum wage, stressing that workers should not be left to bear the full weight of economic reforms until 2027.
He said, “Allowances don’t need a minimum wage conversation, and even salaries, government on its own can actually push the salaries of workers up, even without minimum wage conversation.”
The current national minimum wage of N70,000 was signed into law in 2024 for a three-year period. Osifo said organised labour was already preparing for the next review, but stressed that government had options for improving workers’ welfare before then.
He further cited Ghana as an example of a country where government does not necessarily wait for a new minimum wage before taking measures to improve workers’ pay.
“Government can decide to pay whatever it takes to take care of its employees. Employers can decide to do way above what is there at the minimum threshold,” he said.
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