Domestic workers deserve new minimum wage – Groups tell Nigeria Government

Workers’ rights organizations, Cee Hope Nigeria and Roxa Luxemburg Foundation have asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government to consider domestic workers in its new minimum wage proposal.

The organizations disclosed this in a one-day seminar on the rights of Nigeria’s Domestic Workers in Abuja on Thursday.

The founder of CeeHope Nigeria, Betty Abah in an interview with DAILY POST lamented the hardship domestic workers faced in Nigeria despite being paid meager wages.

He urged that every domestic worker should be given equal rights like mainstream workers in Nigeria.

According to her, domestic workers deserve a living wage that can take care of their needs.

“It is about women’s rights and the vulnerable community.

“This part of our campaign is to spotlight the working conditions of domestic workers in Nigeria. As you know, the condition of domestic workers is parasitic.

“We are working on the unionization of domestic workers so they can assert their rights.

“In Nigeria, most domestic workers render services round the clock, which is not supposed to be so.

“Many have died, some unable to go to school and become not useful to themselves.

“Domestic workers should have minimum wage, not meager wage and should be given the same rights like every other mainstream worker in Nigeria”, she stated.

Earlier, Dr. Claus-Dieter König, the Regional Director of Roxa Luxemburg Stiftung West Africa, said domestic workers have the right to be unionized like every worker in the world.

“The seminar is very important. A large number of people in Nigeria are domestic workers, especially women. There is a need for this person to have equal rights like every other worker across the world,” he said.

The development comes as Nigerian workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have sustained momentum for the Nigerian Government to implement a new minimum wage.

Recall that on Monday, organized labor shut down the economy protesting the failure of the government to implement a new minimum wage and the reversal of the electricity tariff.

The strike was suspended for a week on Tuesday after the government told leaders of organized labor that a minimum wage higher than N60,000 would be considered.

On Thursday, it was reported that the Government and the Organised have returned to the tripartite committee to negotiate the minimum wage.

Recall that the federal government had earlier proposed N60,000 as minimum wage, while organized labour offered N494,000 proposal.