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Barely months after Delta workers began to breathe again following the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage, that

relief has been snatched away, this time not by inflation, but by the cold hand of taxation.

Organised Labour in Delta State has raised the alarm over what it describes as a crushing and demoralising tax regime that has effectively cancelled out workers’ salary increases, plunging many back into financial distress. In a strongly worded letter to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) warned that the January 2026 salaries sparked widespread anger, tension and near revolt across the workforce.

According to Labour, workers who were meant to benefit from the new minimum wage are now staring at payslips that tell a cruel joke: higher gross pay, but diminished, or even negative take-home income. The culprit is the full implementation of the new PAYE tax regime, which Labour says has been rolled out without “a human face.”

Union offices across the state, the letter disclosed, have been besieged by furious workers demanding urgent intervention, as the much-celebrated wage increase has morphed into what many now see as an elaborate illusion. The irony is biting: a policy meant to cushion hardship has, through taxation, become another instrument of hardship.

While commending Governor Oborevwori for prompt salary payments, infrastructure projects and the approval of the new minimum wage, Organised Labour made it clear that gratitude does not cancel hunger. Workers, they stressed, understand the state’s wage burden and their civic duty to pay taxes, but not at the cost of their survival and dignity.

The unions warned that the current situation has left workers disoriented, demoralised and struggling to function effectively, a development with obvious implications for productivity and public service delivery.

Their demand is simple but urgent: the governor must intervene to moderate the impact of the new tax law and ensure that its implementation does not punish the very people it is supposed to serve. Anything less, Labour implied, would amount to giving with one hand and taking back with both.

For now, Delta workers wait, watching their pay rise evaporate on paper, and hoping the “working Governor” will act before frustration boils over into open confrontation.