The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and civil servants, under the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, JNPSNC, Trade Union Side, yesterday demanded a new minimum wage of N500,000 and reduction of petrol price to N500 per litre to address the worsening economic hardship facing workers and their dependents.
In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, the National Secretary of JNPSNC (Trade Union Side), Olowoyo Gbenga, disclosed that workers were also demanding the immediate constitution of a committee to negotiate a new national minimum wage, ahead of January 2027.
This, the NLC described as realistic and legitimate. The workers said the recent increase in fuel prices to N1,430 per litre and above in some locations had further worsened the cost-of-living crisis. They gave government till Wednesday, September 30, 2026, to take action on their demands, warning that the prevailing hardship is creating palpable tension among workers and Nigerians.
The JNPSNC, which includes Nigerian Civil Service Union; Medical and Health Workers Union; Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria; National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives; among others, said the removal of fuel subsidy three years ago had triggered an astronomical increase in fuel prices which triggered multiplier effects on the prices of essential commodities in the economy.
Others unions in the council are Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations; Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees, AUPCTRE; Nigeria Union of Public Service, Reportorial, Secretarial, Data Processors and Allied Workers, NUPSRAW; National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers, NUPPPPROW; and National Union of Agriculture and Allied Employees, NUAEE.
The council said the situation has made life increasingly unbearable for workers, adding that the provision of food palliatives is not a sustainable solution to the economic crisis.
It said: “It has dawned on Nigerian workers that the provision of palliatives, such as bags of rice, Indomie, vegetable oil, garri, among other edible foods, is as good as weaponising Nigerians with poverty because it is a pyrrhic intervention which is unsustainable, inaccessible to the majority of Nigeria’s population and also limited to political cronies.”
The workers argued that a more sustainable intervention would be to reduce the cost of fuel to N500 per litre, saying the measure will have a multiplier effect on the economy.
“Consequent upon the above, it is preferable that the Federal Government provides an intervention that will trickle down to all Nigerians by making fuel available at an affordable amount, as low as N500 (five hundred Naira),” they said.
The council identified the restoration of workers’ purchasing power, improved productivity and service delivery, promotion of integrity and accountability, and the reinforcement of trust and industrial peace as major reasons for its demand for improved remuneration.
On fuel prices, the workers said government should “look inward and stabilise the prices of fuel to an affordable minimum,” arguing that fuel remains an essential commodity with significant implications for the Nigerian economy.
“As a matter of reality, the current hardship being faced by the hapless Nigerian workers is caused by the astronomical increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit to as much as N1,430.00, or more per one litre (this is a killing amount),” the council stated.
It further called for an intervention fund for stakeholders in the oil sector to stabilise fuel prices and eventually bring the pump price down to N500 per litre.
The council also said government could adopt another description for the intervention if the term “fuel subsidy” was considered unacceptable.
“The fuel intervention fund will give the opportunity to every Nigerian to benefit from the intervention fund because it will have multiplier effect in the life of every Nigerian and will naturally trickle down to the downtrodden and all the remotest parts of the country,” it said.
The council also endorsed a position attributed to Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, President, Joe Ajaero, on measures to address the fuel crisis.
Ajaero was quoted as saying that “Nigeria, as an oil-producing country, has sufficient local refining capacity, even as this substantially resides with the private sector.”
He also said: “As a nation, and as a people endowed with enormous fossil resources, we are deserving of a certain level of protection or buffer against the gales from the Gulf, and indeed, other gales.”
According to the NLC position cited by the council, “As part of the process of creating this buffer government should sell sufficient crude in Naira to our local refineries; expand our national storage capacity in pursuance of meeting energy emergencies and security. These measures will create jobs, economic value as well as deal with mutating security challenges.”
The statement further said: “There is nothing wrong with government subsidizing the needs of citizens, especially in emergency situations like this. At the moment, there is no oil-producing country we know of that has not intervened or come up with sustainable palliatives in one way or the other in these perilous times.”
The NLC position also stated: “Government is making extra money in the international spot market (of between USD35 and 40 per barrel above the budgeted figure). This translates to trillions of Naira a month.
“On a long term basis, we are equally concerned that local refineries are importing crude. This is unreasonable and unacceptable and defeats the logic and purpose of local capacity.”
On wages, the council demanded immediate introduction of a wage award covering federal, state and local government workers.
“Wage award as an urgent intervention and upward review of salaries and allowances of all serving public servants in the Nigerian public service should be provided with immediate effect to cut across all federal, state and local government workers,” it said.
The JNPSNC proposed that the minimum salary payable to an officer on Grade Level 01, Step 1, should be N500,000 per month under the 2027 salary template.
The council also called for harmonised wages across ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, while urging that the review be encouraged at the state and local government levels.
The JNPSNC urged the president to direct the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, NSIWC, to commence discussions with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Trade Union Congress of Nigeria TUC; JNPSNC; and other relevant stakeholders on the wage award and upward review of salaries and allowances.
Civil servants demands realistic, legitimate — NLC
Throwing its weight behind the civil servants, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said their demands are very realistic and legitimate, urging government to address them without delay.
Acting General Secretary, Benson Upah, who spoke with Vanguard on the demands yesterday, said: “The demand for a wage award and reduction in the pump price of fuel are very realistic and long overdue.
‘’Workers’ wages have remained static while inflation has continued to rise and erode the value of their earnings. Most workers cannot even afford to go to work, let alone feed their families as at today.
“Therefore, workers need urgent and major intervention, which government can easily afford. It is common knowledge that once the price of fuel goes up, it affects virtually everything, including essential commodities, transportation, school fees, among others.
“It is not only workers who are affected, but also other Nigerians, especially the less-privileged. Nigerians need urgent and major intervention to cope with the biting socio-economic situation. Therefore, the demands of the civil servants are very realistic, legitimate and should be addressed.
Vanguard