NLC President calls for market hearing on prices of food

Joe Ajaero, President,Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has called for a “market hearing” on the prices of food to enable the minimum wage committee to arrive at a reasonable minimum wage.

Ajaero, who is chairing the ongoing North East Zonal Public Hearing on the National Minimum Wage, made the call in Yola on Thursday.

He said the market hearing should be conducted in all zones.

According to him, 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 a bag of rice, garri, and other food items costs; if we balance the two, I think we will get somewhere,” he said.

The president said that 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.

He said, “We are here to collate raw data so that we can process it and get something better and more meaningful that will be acceptable to everyone.”.

Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa described the town hall meeting as timely given the economic situation in the country.

Fintiri, 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.”.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that stakeholders were drawn from Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States for the public hearing.