Federal civil servants in Oyo State have expressed hope of better living standard, following the N70,000 minimum wage approved by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday.
A cross section of the workers, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday, lauded the leadership of the organised labour and the president for the amicable resolution of the minimum wage issue.
One of the civil servants, Mr John Olawale, said that the N70,000 minimum wage was reasonable enough to enhance better living condition of an average civil servant.
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According to Olawale, the new minimum wage, which is a little over 100 per cent increase over the old one, was a good bargain.
“Though inflation rate is high, nevertheless, the new minimum wage will still go a long way in improving the workers’ living standard,” he said.
Olawale, however, urged the Federal Government to do more in the area of provision of a conducive work environment for its workforce.
On her part, Mrs Caroline Ijebah, said that the new minimum wage would better the lives of workers, though she called on government to address the skyrocketing prices of food and other commodities.
Ijebah expressed the fear that the high inflation rate might make the N70,000 minimum wage worthless, if something urgent was not done to address it.
Alhaji Bashir Adekunle, who welcomed the new minimum wage, equally appealed to the federal government to pay the outstanding three months wage award without delay.
Adekunle urged the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to put pressure on government to ensure payment of the wage award arrears.
He also urged them to be vigilant to ensure that no state government sacked any worker as a result of the payment of the new minimum wage.
To Wale Ogundoro, paying N70,000 minimum wage to workers might not have much impacts on the living conditions of workers if inflation rate continued to rise.
Ogundoro urged government to do everything possible to reduce the inflation rate and ensure that all the nation’s refineries were working so as to end the high cost of petroleum products.
According to him, high cost of petroleum products is a major contributory factor to increase in the prices of food and other items.
