The association said the current minimum wage was no longer sufficient to guarantee workers a decent standard of living, given the escalating costs of food, transportation, electricity and healthcare.
Its National President, Shehu Mohammed, made the demand on Thursday at the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, attended by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Muhammadu Dingyadi.
Mohammed urged the Federal Government to introduce a sustainable salary adjustment rather than rely on temporary relief measures, including wage awards, which he said had failed to address workers’ financial difficulties.
Aligning the association with the position of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), he maintained that temporary interventions could not provide lasting solutions to the economic challenges facing Nigerian workers.
He also criticised the government’s failure to fully implement previous relief packages, particularly the 2023 wage awards, saying this had undermined workers’ confidence in such interventions.
The ASCSN president said the government should not wait until the next statutory minimum wage negotiation before reviewing workers’ salaries.
“Rather than waiting until the next statutory minimum wage negotiation cycle, we demand that the Federal Government should act immediately by raising the salary of its lowest-paid worker to N300,000, with appropriate consequential adjustments across higher salary grade levels,” he said.
Responding to the concerns, Dingyadi called for stronger cooperation between the Federal Government and organised labour, stressing the importance of dialogue and partnership in addressing workers’ welfare.
Speaking on the theme, ‘From Confrontation to Collaboration’, the minister said disagreements between the government and labour unions should be resolved through constructive engagement rather than strikes and prolonged industrial disputes.
Meanwhile, workers in Osun State returned to their duty posts yesterday following the suspension of a three-day warning strike called by organised labour over the non-release of local government allocations by the Federal Government.
The state government secretariat in Abere and the Osun State House of Assembly, whose gates had remained shut since Monday, were reopened as workers resumed official activities.
Workers also returned to the secretariats of Olorunda and Osogbo local government areas.
Organised labour had directed workers in the state on Sunday to embark on a solidarity strike in support of local government employees, demanding the release of withheld council allocations.
However, on Wednesday, the labour unions instructed workers to resume duty on Thursday, bringing the three-day industrial action to an end.
The unions commended workers, pensioners and affiliated organisations for their support, cooperation and peaceful conduct throughout the strike.
