The Lagos State chapter of the Labour Party has appealed to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to ensure a living wage for workers in the state.
The Lagos State publicity secretary of the party, Mrs Olubunmi Odesanya, made the appeal in an interview with NAN on Wednesday in Lagos.
Odesanya, while assessing Sanwo-Olu as he marks the first anniversary of his second tenure, said the governor needed to step up his game to relieve residents of the current socio-economic challenges.
According to her, the masses in the state, including workers, are struggling to survive and to meet their daily personal and family needs.
She urged the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to pity the workers in whatever it was proposing as the minimum wage.
Odesanya said the people need a living wage, which would take cognisance of the socio-economic indices for workers to be happy.
She said: “We are all watching in awe the minimum wage debacle. The current minimum wage of N30,000 is due for review this year, 2024, as we can recall, from the agreed and written labour law. Ordinarily, the review ought not to create so much apprehension or furore but for the difficulties in the country.”
The Labour Party chieftain said there was an urgent need for the federal government and the state government to give a living wage to the workers that “lay the golden egg.”
She said that the immediate removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government drove the prices of goods and services to an astronomical level and beyond the reach of the poor and middle class.
“In Nigeria today, there is no middle class anymore; you are either extremely poor or super rich. The inflation rate is also high,” she said.