Worried by the biting impact of inflation on workers, the leadership of joint Public Service Negotiations Council (JPSNC) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to,as a matter of urgency effect upward review of allowances of workers to meet the current economic realities.
The National Chairperson Comrade Benjamin Anthony and the National Secretary Comrade Bomoi Mohammed ibraheem ,in the letter dated 5th July 2022 argued that the N30,000 minimum wage could no longer withstand the rising inflation.
According to the union ,the ex change rate had jumped from N150.00 in 2014 to the current rate of N615.00 to a dollar; stresding that this had increased the cost of living and impoverished workers in the Public Service the more .
In the letter addressed to Mr President through the Head of Service of the Federation entitled” urgent need for upward review of allowances to entire workers in the Public Service” the body said the current level of insecurity has further worsened the situation as some workers who used to engage in farming and other menial activities to make ends meet no longer do so” JNC lamented.
The Council believes that despite the identified challenges, the economy generally is still growing well and the price of oil has shot up over the last year”
“A pointer is International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on Nigeria in February 2022 after recession neccessitated by the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 the real value of the economy increased by around 2.6% a year; that is doubling of the actual six of the economy in less than twenty years, this is the same amount that the minimum wage increased over the last eleven (11years) as everyone knows that we are getting poorer as workers”
The JNC believes that the review of the aforementioned allowances would go a long way to alleviate the excruciating effects of the present economic challenges faced by the workers and further boost their productivity for National development.
However the JNC commended the President of the country for his doggedness and pragmatic efforts put in place in handling the affairs of the country in the face of daunting challenges as well as the approval for the upward review of the New national minimum wage from Eighteen thousand to Thirty thousand naira (N18,000 to N30.000) in 2019.
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