The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has rejected the Federal Government’s proposed N70,000 monthly transportation allowance for workers, demanding an immediate salary increase to cushion the impact of rising living costs.
The Congress described the allowance as a temporary and inadequate response to economic hardship following the removal of the petrol subsidy, insisting that workers need a sustainable pay rise rather than “haphazard measures”.
The Federal Government approved the N70,000 monthly transport allowance for public servants beginning in November at a conciliation meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja on Tuesday.
It also approved the payment of outstanding peculiar allowance arrears, effective from May 1, 2026, in three equal monthly instalments beginning in November.
However, following its National Administrative Council meeting, the TUC maintained that workers could not continue to rely on temporary relief while their purchasing power declined.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, TUC President Festus Osifo, flanked by the union’s General Secretary, Nuhu Toro, said there was no legal or historical basis for preventing the government from implementing an immediate salary increase.
Osifo argued that temporary wage awards were neither sustainable nor far-reaching, noting that the previous agreement between the government and organised labour had not been fully implemented.
He recalled that the wage award agreed upon on October 2, 2023, was intended to remain in effect until a new minimum wage was negotiated in 2024, but was never comprehensively implemented.
“How do we go back to the same wage award that never benefited all workers? How can workers be expected to trust fresh promises when previous obligations remain outstanding?
“Irregularity in the payment of the wage award of 2023 as those that even got up to four months’ wage award of N40,000 never got it every month but with one- or two-months’ interval and several pushes.
“Over 80% of the states and informal sector never implemented any form of wage award.
“From the foregoing we further reiterate our demand for a pay raise for all government workers as salary is the only consistent and far-reaching pay that workers could rely upon.
“This was our position during the consultative interaction and it’s still our position today; as we strongly believe that the long sacrifices of Nigerian workers should not be sacrificed at the altar of an ill-conceived temporary measure.
“Negotiations of a new national minimum wage must not become an excuse for postponing urgent pay increment,” he said.
The TUC president stressed that the economic crisis also affected state and local government employees, pensioners, private-sector workers and those in the informal economy, citing rising costs of food, transportation, healthcare and other essential services.
The Congress called on governments at all levels to introduce measurable interventions to reduce the cost of essential goods and services, ensure timely payment of salaries and pensions, protect existing jobs, curb exploitative labour practices and revitalise the productive sector to create decent employment.
It further demanded that the interventions be inclusive, adequately funded and supported by clear implementation timelines.
The TUC urged the government to move beyond policy announcements and demonstrate tangible improvements in Nigerians’ living conditions.
