The president of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo on Wednesday said that raising the minimum wage for civil servants will not lead to inflation.
Osifo made this disclosure while speaking on the Channels Television programme ‘Morning Brief’.
He said, given the increased revenue allocation to States since May 2023, there is a justified reason for an increase in the minimum wage.
“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.
“Giving workers what is due them won’t necessarily worsen inflation,” he said.
Recall that On 30th April, following the setting up of a 37-member tripartite committee on minimum wages in January, the Federal Government decided to increase salaries between 25 % and 35 % for public service personnel within six consolidating salary structures.
Labour unions wanted a new minimum wage of N615,000 for workers and also called on the federal government to make a formal declaration on the new minimum wage on May 1st.
