The Association of Senior Civil Servants has demanded for a minimum wage of N46, 000 for workers. This demand is coming at a moment when federal and state governments are owing workers several months of unpaid salaries.
The association’s Secretary-General, Mr. Bashir Lawal, said yesterday that the current N18, 000 minimum wage cannot meet the socio-economic demands of workers.
According to him, a minimum wage of N46,000 demand was arrived at after the union met with the National Public Service Joint Negotiating Council. “In the past one year, we presented a proposal for salary review to the Federal Government but the government said that the price of crude had fallen. We argued that if the price of crude is 30 dollars per barrel and the resources of the country are well managed, money will be enough to pay workers decent salaries.
“From the memo we submitted to the NPSJNC, we computed what it will take for an average worker to survive and we arrived at N66, 000. So, we took 75 per cent of that and we arrived at N46, 000 minimum wage.”
He assured that the new minimum wage would not cause crisis in the economic sector. “If the government believes that the amount will create crisis, we will tell them what to do to ensure that everybody will be carried along.”
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