Nigerian Workers’ N70,000 Wage Cannot Sustain Them — Socialist Labour Backs N300,000 Minimum Wage Demand | Sahara Reporters

According to Socialist Labour, employers had repeatedly increased the prices of goods and services whenever production costs rose, while workers’ demands for wage increases were being portrayed as a threat to the economy.

Socialist Labour, Oyo State Chapter, has condemned the Organised Private Sector (OPS) over its opposition to the demand by the Federal Workers Forum for an increase in Nigeria’s minimum wage to N300,000.

The group, in a statement issued in Ibadan on Wednesday and signed by Comrade Ogundele Ayodele, said the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and other employers’ groups were attempting to shift the burden of Nigeria’s economic crisis onto workers.

Socialist Labour said the OPS must distinguish between macroeconomic indicators and the “brutal microeconomic reality” confronting Nigerian workers, who it said were struggling with soaring food, transport, housing, healthcare and education costs.

“The central question is simple: where is the purchasing power of Nigerian workers?” the group asked.

According to Socialist Labour, employers had repeatedly increased the prices of goods and services whenever production costs rose, while workers’ demands for wage increases were being portrayed as a threat to the economy.

The statement partly read: “When the naira was devalued, did the Organised Private Sector reduce the prices of its commodities to preserve workers’ purchasing power?

“When the price of petrol was dramatically increased, did manufacturers and businesses retain the old prices of their products in solidarity with workers?

“When electricity tariffs and transportation costs increased, did businesses absorb these additional costs instead of transferring them to consumers?

The group said the sharp increase in the prices of essential commodities had eroded workers’ purchasing power, arguing that the nominal increase in the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 did not reflect the actual economic position of workers.

It said a worker earning N30,000 at a particular period could buy about 207 litres of petrol, while a worker earning N70,000 today could purchase only about 58 litres based on prevailing fuel prices.

“Therefore, simply looking at the nominal increase from N30,000 to N70,000 without considering the dramatic collapse in purchasing power is economically misleading.

“Workers are not asking for luxury. They are demanding survival,” it said.

Socialist Labour accused the OPS of focusing on workers’ wages while ignoring what it described as excessive profits, economic concentration, import dependence, currency devaluation, high energy costs, government waste, corruption and the country’s debt burden.

“Socialist Labour rejects the attempt to make workers the shock absorbers of government policies and capitalist economic failures,” the statement said.

It added, “Workers did not remove fuel subsidy. Workers did not devalue the naira. Workers did not increase electricity tariffs. Workers did not create the foreign-exchange crisis.

“Workers did not formulate the anti-poor economic policies currently impoverishing millions of Nigerians.

“Why, therefore, must workers be the ones to pay for the consequences?”

The group also rejected claims that higher wages would automatically trigger hyperinflation or stagflation.

“We equally reject the argument that increasing wages automatically produces hyperinflation or stagflation. Such an argument ignores the structural causes of Nigeria’s inflationary crisis and deliberately reduces a complex economic problem to workers’ wages,” it said.

Socialist Labour said workers should not be forced to accept low wages because employers claim that higher pay is unaffordable.

“If businesses can increase prices to protect their operations, workers must equally have the right to demand wages that protect their lives and purchasing power,” the group said.

It declared support for the Federal Workers Forum’s demand for an immediate review of workers’ salaries and an increase in the minimum wage to N300,000.

The group acknowledged that N300,000 might still not constitute a sufficient living wage under current economic conditions, but described it as “a necessary starting point” for reversing the erosion of workers’ purchasing power.

Socialist Labour also accused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) of failing to adequately respond to the worsening conditions of Nigerian workers.

“We call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to wake up from bureaucratic complacency and take seriously the worsening material conditions of Nigerian workers,” it said.

“The trade union movement must stop negotiating poverty and begin fighting for a genuine living wage that reflects the actual cost of survival.”

The group further urged workers to reject attempts to divide public-sector and private-sector employees, saying the struggle for decent wages affected the entire working class.

“The struggle for decent wages is not a public-sector struggle alone. The exploitation of one section of the working class ultimately weakens the entire working class,” it said.

Socialist Labour maintained that Nigeria’s problem was not a lack of wealth but the concentration of wealth and productive resources in the hands of a small minority.

“Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of wealth. It suffers from an economic system in which wealth and productive resources are concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority while the majority are condemned to poverty,” the statement said.

The group concluded: “Workers did not create this crisis. Workers must not be forced to pay for it.

“A living wage is a right, not a privilege. N70,000 cannot sustain a Nigerian worker. Organise! Mobilise! Resist!” the statement read.