Festus Osifo, the president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Wednesday, said increasing the minimum wage for civil servants will not worsen inflation.
He stated this while speaking on Channels Television programme ‘Morning Brief’.
The federal government had on April 30 approved an increase of between 25 percent and 35 percent salary increase for civil servants on the six consolidated salary structures after it had set up a 37-member tripartite committee on the minimum wage in January.
Read also: Minimum wage negotiation and the nexus with food inflation
Labour union had requested N615,000 as the new minimum wage for workers and also call on the federal government to make a formal declaration on the new minimum wage on May 1st.
While speaking, Osife disclosed that there is a justified reason for an increase in the minimum wage given increased revenue allocation to states since May 2023.
“If you look today, from May 2023 to date, revenue from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the state governments has tripled.
“This means the state government has more money to build roads and schools to purchase other items.
“The most critical aspect of production is labour. It is for you to take part of the money and pay workers. That won’t increase inflation because the money will be spent anyway; if you don’t give it to workers, it will be spent on other projects.
Read also: Labour doubts implementation of new minimum wage in May
“Giving workers what is due them won’t necessarily worsen inflation,” he said.
