Achieving Realistic National Minimum Wage

After months of delay, the House of Representatives recently passed a resolution adopting N30,000 as the new National Minimum Wage for workers in the country. The recommendation of the House is in response to the demands of organsied labour for the approval of a new minimum wage of N56,000 by the Federal Government.
Speaking with newsmen, last week, Hon Solomon Akpatasan (APC-Edo) said that members of the House took cognizance of the plight of Nigerian workers who have been impoverished due mainly to the rough economic realities and their low purchasing power propelled by the N18,000 minimum wage.
He argued that the high inflationary trend over the years has made nonsense of the N18,000 minimum wage, and advised the Federal Government to expedite action by quickly setting up the tripartite committee comprising the government, labour and employers’ consultative council to agree on acceptable figure as minimum wage for workers in the country.
However, in a swift reaction to the resolution of the House, President of Trade Union Congress (TUC), comrade Bobboi Kaigama vowed that the organised labour would not accept the N30,000 recommended by the lawmakers as minimum wage, insisting that given the present economic realities, nothing less than N50,000 would serve.
While The Tide commends our distinguished lawmakers for their concern in workers’ plight over the years, we, however, endorse the organised labour’s position, particularly the NLC’s stand that the government should speed up the process for the tripartite body to agree on a realistic figure which would be presented to the National Executive Council (NEC), National Council of State (NCS) and the National Assembly for the enabling legislation on the new minimum wage for the country.
Considering the inflationary trend and other socio-economic realities that stare the workers in the face, the rejection of N30,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its sister labour union, Trade Union Congress (TUC) is quite instructive, and needs further negotiation between labour, government and other stakeholders.
We, therefore, insist that the principle of collective bargaining and mutual agreement should and must be adopted by all concerned, rather than forcing workers to accept hook, line and sinker the N30,000 adopted as minimum wage by the House.
We caution that if deliberate efforts are not taken to expedite the process for a new minimum age, workers might resort to a national strike to press home their demand, and this could force the nation’s economy back into recession which Nigeria has strived to exit in the last few months.
The Tide, therefore, calls for a harmonious industrial environment in the country as a catalyst for national development rather than the prevailing industrial disputes that have pervaded the nation in the past one year or more because productivity has been hampered in the process.
We think that our national wage bill policy should, among others, guarantee maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen, particularly the workers, on the basis of social justice and equality of status as enshrined in Chapter 11, Section 14(2) and 16(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which strictly deal with the upward review of wages of political office holders to the detriment of other categories of workers.
Whereas most public office holders get enhanced remunerations without much struggle, workers, especially in public service resorted to national strikes for over 15 times to get to the present N18,000 minimum wage during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Before the progression to N18,000, the minimum wage was N7,500 when late President Musa Yar-Adua’s regime set up a tripartite Presidential Committee on National Minimum Wage headed by Justice Alfa Belgore whose committee’s report was approved but implemented by Jonathan after the Senate passed the minimum wage bill into law on February 22, 2009.
The Tide believes that the Nigerian worker has sufficiently demonstrated maturity, understanding, patience and patriotism over the years as against political office holders and appointees whose salaries and allowances have geometrically risen several times.
We think that both the executive and the legislative arms of government should demonstrate their commitment and patriotism to workers’ welfare by working in synergy to ensure the adoption of an acceptable new national minimum wage. The time to act is now.