By Esenvosa Izah
The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has released demands it made at the meeting held with the Federal Government on Sunday over the recent fuel subsidy removal.
In a statement signed by the union’s President, Mr Festus Osifo, and General Secretary, Mr Nuhu Toro on Monday, the union called for the immediate implementation of the demands.
It highlighted 14 of the demands for immediate implementation and five for the medium term.
The demands include maintenance of status quo ante of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) pump price while discussion continued.
“Minimum wage should be increased from the current N30,000 to N200,000 before the end of June 2023, with consequential adjustment on cost of feeding allowance, like feeding, transport, housing, among others.
“A representative of state governors will be party to this communique and all the governors must commit to implement the new minimum wage.
“Tax holiday for employees both in government and private sector that earn less than N200,000 or 500USD monthly whichever is higher.
“PMS Allowance to be introduced for those earning between N200,000 to N500,000 or 500USD to 1,200USD whichever is higher, “ it said.
Others include the setting up of intervention fund where government would be paying N10 per litre on all locally consumed PMS.
According to the TUC, the primary purpose of this fund is to solve perennial and protracted national issues in education, health and housing.
“A governance structure that will include labour, civil society and government will be put in place to manage the implementation.
“Federal Government should provide mass transit vehicles for all categories of the populace.
“State governments should immediately set up a subsidised transportation system to reduce the pressure on workers and students: the framework around this will be worked out.
“Immediate review of the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover more Nigerians and prevent out of stock of drugs,” the union said.
On the medium term, the union called for the deployment of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) across the country in line with the earlier promise made by government.
It said that the framework and timeline would be developed and agreed by both parties.
It also called on labour and government to design a framework that would be geared toward the reduction of cost of governance by 15 per cent in 2024 and 30 per cent by 2025.
“A framework should be immediately put in place to maintain the road and expand the rail networks across the country.
“Government must design a framework for social housing policy for workers through Rent to Own System.
“The state of electricity in the country must be appraised and an action plan should be defined with time lines on how to get this fixed.
“A strong monitoring team comprising of all parties will be constituted, “ the union said. (NAN)
