‘Labour Has Shown Enough Patience on Minimum Wage’

• ‘Labour Has Shown Enough Patience on Minimum Wage’

The Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has said the organised labour has exhibited the highest level of civility, patience and respect for due process in the quest for a national minimum wage.

It declared that the demand for an increase in the minimum wage and the nationwide strike declared by labour to achieve it was justified by all economic indices.

Speaking to reporters in Abuja, MHWUN President Comrade Biobelemoye said: “Permit us to restate at this juncture that the justification for a new minimum wage cannot be overemphasised, while all the indices that justify wage increase have either been introduced by the government or market-driven forces have propelled their emergence.

“Under this administration, the pump price of petroleum products have been increased; the currency has been devalued with consequential effects on workers and the citizenry. We have unbearable electricity tariffs, punitive exchange rate and hyper inflation, all of which have led to a rising cost of living for workers and other Nigerians.

“Sadly too, we are yet to feel the impacts of government’s promise to mitigate these hardships even with the setting up of a palliatives committee to fashion out strategy, policies and programmes to cushion the vagaries of its policies,” he said.

According to Biobelemoye, the government’s disregard for collective bargaining agreement reached with workers has earned it the toga of an administration that has no regard for the welfare of workers.

He made reference to the crisis in the health sector and how the government has, till today, failed to respect all the agreements reached with health workers.