As fuel costs rise to over N1,000 per litre, it puts a serious strain on workers who struggle to commute to their workplaces owing to the high cost of transportation, with the employee turnover rate hitting a new level, writes GLORIA NWAFOR.

Since the federal government announced the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023, many Nigerians have continued to have it rough despite some interventions that seek to ameliorate the hardship Nigerians were facing.

While still battling with the challenges of hardship and the high cost of living, the government also increased the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as fuel, which automatically increased transportation costs nationwide by over 200 per cent.

This year alone, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has adjusted petrol pump prices upwards thrice from N568 to N855 and N998 per litre in Lagos State (depending on the fuel station) and above N1,030 in other states barely a month.

The move has tremendously affected market prices and transportation costs as many are devising different means to get out of the ugly situation.

Findings have shown that many employees are resigning from their jobs over the high cost of transportation since the increase in fuel pump prices by the Federal Government.

The move, many said, would continue to increase the high unemployment rate if the Federal Government does not reverse some of its unfavourable policies affecting the citizens.

Commuting across the country through public transport has become a hurricane task. For instance, going to Victoria Island (VI) from Ojuelegba in Lagos is over N2,000, which was about N1,200 before the increase. VI to Oshodi is now N1800 unlike N800 before. Ojuelegba to Apapa, which was previously N300, is now N500. Oshodi to Mile 2, which used to be N400, is now N800.

The Guardian learned that the cost of a trip from Maryland to Mile 2 has risen from N1,000 to N1,500, while the price of a journey from Sango Ota to Oshodi has increased from N800 to N1,500.

Findings show that while manufacturers and traders have factored in production costs according to how they produce and how they buy, many workers whose only option lies on their salaries and could no longer cope with hikes in transportation fares are retorting to resigning from their jobs.

Their arguments, The Guardian gathered, are that they are spending all their salaries and even above on transportation costs, a situation they maintained was no longer sustainable.

Since the government increased the fuel pump price, many Human Resource personnel have confirmed the increase in the number of resignation letters received from employees in their organisations.

According to a Head of Human Resources of an organisation on the Island in Lagos, who does not want his name in print, in the space of two months, in August and September, his organisation received more resignation letters from their workers.

He said with the latest increase recently, with fuel selling at over N1,000, some have also resigned.

He said it was posing a huge challenge to many organisations to start recruiting new intake to fill up the vacant positions.

He, however, said his organisation has factored in other options to make commuting to work easier for workers by providing staff buses and facilitating the work-from-homeoption.

Another HR personnel, Sandra Awoyeni, said last week her organisation received five resignation letters.

She said they could not convince the workers, who occupied critical positions in the company, to stay behind due to the reasons behind their resignations.

She urged the government to come to the masses’ aid and reverse the hike in fuel prices, as the increase was biting hard on the citizens.

When The Guardian engaged some of the persons who resigned from their jobs lately, while some have gotten other jobs which entail them working from home as all tools are provided to make them work at ease while some said they are yet to find but better for them rather than working and collecting salaries, yet transportation cost was consuming all.

“I am at peace with myself resigning from my job lately. I work on the Island with a monthly salary of N120,000. Before now, I could save a little at month’s end, but now, after all expenses, including spending almost N4,000 on transportation, there is nothing left; I can’t even get a shirt and a pair of trousers out of it. The best option was for me to resign and venture into another thing that I can rely comfortably on,” one Chidi Nwosu, who once worked on the Island, said.

Another lady, Cynthia Chigbu, who has ventured into social media influence, also said resigning from her N150,000 job was the best option for her, too, as she sits comfortably in her home earning triple what she got from her previous job.

“I opened a page on social media and started creating content, making funny posts that got people engaged and following me. My first post on TikTok got many views, and I earned N1 million. I was shocked. Since then, I focused more on the positive side of social media, and I am making it in the comfort of my home,” she said.

In some cases, to reduce the transportation burden, some workers, what they do is that they report to work on Monday, stay in the workplace till Friday, and then go home on Friday.

Justifying the claim is the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, saying “We have several cases of them. But it is not just the cost of transportation that is causing the problem. It is also the cost of food, housing, medicare, and cost of utilities as the electricity tariff has gone up. You need to pay and many people are going off the grid. People are looking for alternatives, and it is terrible that we are running a country like that. The policies the federal government has come up with are policies that have taken Nigeria backwards by almost 50 years, and that is not good.”

On some state’s government policy of work from home, he said it meant that the government was working against productivity, stating that the number of times one is at work speaks to his or her level of productivity.

“If you tell a worker not to come to work for two days in a week, it means that what you have done is that you have nearly reduced his productivity by 50 per cent. That is what it means. So, you are shooting the nation’s economy in the foot and that is a crisis. I do not understand whether the government is realising that we are in an economic crisis and the crisis is not reducing. It is being deepened and exacerbated by government policies.”

Similarly, a Public Affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, said when a worker spends all his resources on transportation that those who would want to stay on the job would have to cut corners to stay afloat.

“What is happening now is a driver of corruption because people must find a way of surviving, and if you don’t dare to resign from your work, it then means that you have an empathetic office. They can then give options for workers to come three or two times a week or to work remotely or even offer their workers enhanced salary,” he said.

He said that the rising cost of living has made people want to cut corners, particularly for organisations that are not willing to put a significant increase on the salaries of their workforce, he asked that when the company has not made any profit and they are battling with the challenges of finance, will they be able to increase workers’ salaries at this time?   “It is a dicey situation. There is a nagging problem, which is the ease of doing business that is negatively impacted now. Rising operational costs, like energy, look at many cottage industries that are folded up because they can’t meet up with the running costs for their businesses. Generally, all those running costs have eaten deep into the profit margin of many businesses, which also has negated the chances of many companies paying the new national minimum wage.

“Because if you are going to review your workers’ salaries, it means that you are increasing the cost of doing business. If you are not in a very stable business with a good profit margin that may even make the organisation have to downsize. It is not only about people resigning now.

You may even have to retrain staff to stay afloat,” he said.