The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called for “Market Hearing” on prices of food to enable the minimum wage committee to arrive at a reasonable salary benchmark.
NLC’s President, Joe Ajaero, made this call on Thursday in Yola while chairing the ongoing North East Zonal Public Hearing on National Minimum Wage.
He said that the market hearing should be conducted in all zones.
He explained that without the market hearing the aim of the public hearing on minimum wage will be defeated.
“We need to go to the markets and ask how much is a bag of rice, Garri and other food items , if we balance the two I think we will get somewhere,” he said.
According to him, a lot of people were facing difficulties, a worker had to pay at least N1000 for transport to go to work and there was a need for the government to do something.
“We are here to collate raw data, so that we can process, get something better and meaningful that will be acceptable to everyone,” he said.
On his part, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, described the town hall meeting as timely going by the economic situation in the country.
Fintiri, who was represented by his Deputy, Prof. Kaletapwa Farauta, said, “as government, the right thing to do is what we are doing, to get to our people and bring them help and succour.”
DAILY POST reports that stakeholders were drawn from Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States for the public hearing.
Minimum wage: NLC seeks ‘market hearing’ on prices of food
