NLC President calls for market hearing on prices of food

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

Ajaero, who is chairing the ongoing North East Zonal Public Hearing on 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 is a bag of rice, Garri and other food items, 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 need for government to do something.

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

Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, described the town hall meeting as timely going by 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”.

It was reported that stakeholders were drawn from Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States for the public hearing.