28/11/2010 00:02
Labour, Govs On Collision Course Over New Wage
The battle ground over the implementation of a new minimum wage for workers may shift from the federal to state level as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has vowed to tackle alleged move by state governors to thwart universal payment of the wage.
In a statement signed by the President and General-Secretary of Congress, Abdulwahed Omar and John Odah, and issued in Abuja yesterday, the NLC faulted the position of the governors to decentralise the minimum wage to ensure that it is determined by what a state government can afford.
Congress argued that the governors chose to see only one side of the coin by citing the need to respect the spirit of federalism to justify their position.
The national umbrella body of Nigerian workers wondered why the payment of office perks and allowances of all the governors, their numerous aides, counsellors, state legislators should be universal but “the peanuts” that workers take monthly would be subjected to the rudiments of federalism.
NLC said: “Invariably, the argument by the governors of wanting to have separate minimum wages cannot be sustained since the governors, local council chairmen as well as councillors from the least endowed states receive the same amount of salaries and allowances with states like Lagos, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers, to cite a few examples.
“Congress, however, wishes to express its strong disapproval of the position advanced by the governors who briefed the press following the decision of the Council of State, saying the process for the country’s national minimum wage be deregulated so that states can pay whatever they wish to workers. We wish to unequivocally state that this suggestion, which they said is in line with the concept of federalism, is completely unacceptable to Nigerian workers. We therefore advise the National Assembly to disregard the advice.”
According to the NLC statement, Congress went further to state that the objective of the framers of
the constitution is to use the national minimum wage bill as the minimum benchmark under which no worker should be paid. The Omar-led Congress called on the National Assembly to be guided by history, saying the road to a new minimum wage bill is not a new one, citing similar exercises that took place in 1981 and 2000.
Labour added: “It is our belief that the framers of our constitution, in the instance of a national minimum wage, rightly recognise the logic of the federal government setting the minimum standard for the entire federation. It is essentially for that purpose that the issue of national minimum wage is in the
Exclusive Legislative List. The intention, therefore, is that when an affordable minimum wage is set, other employers in the federation can then improve on it.
“Congress believes that the National Assembly is well equipped to carry out this task as they are representatives elected from all parts of the country. We wish to emphasise that this has been the practice since 1981 and we expect that this should continue.”
While declaring that there is no state that cannot pay N18, 000 minimum wage to its workers, NLC called on state governments to be more prudent with their resources.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress will not allow workers to be blackmailed for the demonstrable ineffectiveness of governments at the lower level in rising up to the challenge of raising internal revenue to meet the needs of respective states. We equally believe that all states have the capacity to pay only if governors are willing to trim down the mammoth crowd of aides they appoint and who draw very huge chunk from the resources of their states but with little or no value added to the governance process,” it said.
Congress, therefore, called on the National Assembly to take expedited action in the passage of the new National Minimum Wage Act to enable it to be reflected in the 2011 federal and state budgets, “so that we can avoid further dislocation of the economy by industrial disputes.”
Meanwhile, the National Assembly has said it would not delay the processing and passage of the wage Bill forwarded to it by the Presidency to give legal backing to the take-off of the N18,000 minimum wage which got the approval of the National Council of States on Thursday.
It also declared that it would ensure full implementation of the 2010 budget even if it involves extension of the budget’s implementation period till the end of the first quarter of next year.
Briefing journalists at the National Assembly yesterday, House of Representatives’ spokesman, Eseme Eyibo said the leadership of the National Assembly was working to ensure that the presentation of the 2011 budget Bill was not delayed.
“The mere fact that within this short period when the President met with Labour and promised to facilitate the N18,000 minimum wage for workers, it was able to convene the National Council of States meeting and came up with its approval of the minimum wage showed that he (the president) meant business. With such expeditious attention, what we should now do is to ask the people (workers) to show concern and exercise restraint and understanding while we await the process between the executive and the legislature to be activated. And I assure you that there is not going to be any problem at all because no ill-will is intended at all from either the executive or the legislature.”
In a statement signed by the President and General-Secretary of Congress, Abdulwahed Omar and John Odah, and issued in Abuja yesterday, the NLC faulted the position of the governors to decentralise the minimum wage to ensure that it is determined by what a state government can afford.
Congress argued that the governors chose to see only one side of the coin by citing the need to respect the spirit of federalism to justify their position.
The national umbrella body of Nigerian workers wondered why the payment of office perks and allowances of all the governors, their numerous aides, counsellors, state legislators should be universal but “the peanuts” that workers take monthly would be subjected to the rudiments of federalism.
NLC said: “Invariably, the argument by the governors of wanting to have separate minimum wages cannot be sustained since the governors, local council chairmen as well as councillors from the least endowed states receive the same amount of salaries and allowances with states like Lagos, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers, to cite a few examples.
“Congress, however, wishes to express its strong disapproval of the position advanced by the governors who briefed the press following the decision of the Council of State, saying the process for the country’s national minimum wage be deregulated so that states can pay whatever they wish to workers. We wish to unequivocally state that this suggestion, which they said is in line with the concept of federalism, is completely unacceptable to Nigerian workers. We therefore advise the National Assembly to disregard the advice.”
According to the NLC statement, Congress went further to state that the objective of the framers of
the constitution is to use the national minimum wage bill as the minimum benchmark under which no worker should be paid. The Omar-led Congress called on the National Assembly to be guided by history, saying the road to a new minimum wage bill is not a new one, citing similar exercises that took place in 1981 and 2000.
Labour added: “It is our belief that the framers of our constitution, in the instance of a national minimum wage, rightly recognise the logic of the federal government setting the minimum standard for the entire federation. It is essentially for that purpose that the issue of national minimum wage is in the
Exclusive Legislative List. The intention, therefore, is that when an affordable minimum wage is set, other employers in the federation can then improve on it.
“Congress believes that the National Assembly is well equipped to carry out this task as they are representatives elected from all parts of the country. We wish to emphasise that this has been the practice since 1981 and we expect that this should continue.”
While declaring that there is no state that cannot pay N18, 000 minimum wage to its workers, NLC called on state governments to be more prudent with their resources.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress will not allow workers to be blackmailed for the demonstrable ineffectiveness of governments at the lower level in rising up to the challenge of raising internal revenue to meet the needs of respective states. We equally believe that all states have the capacity to pay only if governors are willing to trim down the mammoth crowd of aides they appoint and who draw very huge chunk from the resources of their states but with little or no value added to the governance process,” it said.
Congress, therefore, called on the National Assembly to take expedited action in the passage of the new National Minimum Wage Act to enable it to be reflected in the 2011 federal and state budgets, “so that we can avoid further dislocation of the economy by industrial disputes.”
Meanwhile, the National Assembly has said it would not delay the processing and passage of the wage Bill forwarded to it by the Presidency to give legal backing to the take-off of the N18,000 minimum wage which got the approval of the National Council of States on Thursday.
It also declared that it would ensure full implementation of the 2010 budget even if it involves extension of the budget’s implementation period till the end of the first quarter of next year.
Briefing journalists at the National Assembly yesterday, House of Representatives’ spokesman, Eseme Eyibo said the leadership of the National Assembly was working to ensure that the presentation of the 2011 budget Bill was not delayed.
“The mere fact that within this short period when the President met with Labour and promised to facilitate the N18,000 minimum wage for workers, it was able to convene the National Council of States meeting and came up with its approval of the minimum wage showed that he (the president) meant business. With such expeditious attention, what we should now do is to ask the people (workers) to show concern and exercise restraint and understanding while we await the process between the executive and the legislature to be activated. And I assure you that there is not going to be any problem at all because no ill-will is intended at all from either the executive or the legislature.”
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