…It’s now criminal to refuse to pay salaries – NLC
…N70,000 is awful, can breed inequality, affect productivity – Ozekhome
The recent passage of the Minimum Wage Bill by the National Assembly has laid to rest several months of agitations by state governors to take control of wage issues at the state level.
The retention of the Minimum Wage on the Exclusive Legislative List is seen as a big relief in the battle for workers’ welfare, especially at the sub-national level.
The law contained far-reaching measures, including the three yearly reviews, as well as the retention of the Minimum Wage in the Exclusive Legislative List, despite attempts by some governors to pressure the lawmakers to move it to the Concurrent Legislative List.
The passage of the bill implies that the 36 states of the federation are duty-bound to pay the new minimum wage. It is not optional.
Chris Onyeka, top member of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in an interview with BusinessDaySunday in Abuja, commended the lawmakers for “not caving in to the demands of the governors.”
Onyeka said that the willingness to pay was the problem and not that the state governors did not have the money.
He reminded the governors that the states will not run successfully if the workforce are not properly motivated.
Read also: New minimum wage can’t feed a family of three
“You do not to muzzle the ox. Workers’ salaries are not payments made to charity. They (governors) think we should clap for them when they pay workers’ salaries; people should know that the machinery of governance will grind to a halt without the workers. Workers create the wealth, maintain the hospital, life blood of the nation.
“We have seen a governor in this country who claims he can’t pay N30,000 as minimum wage, but ended up, paying about $800,000 as school fees in advance for his children. Many spend money maintaining guest houses in Abuja and elsewhere around the world, but when it comes to issues of workers’ salaries, they develop cold feet. This is bad for our country’s development.”
The labour leader said that members of the organised labour accepted N70,000 minimum wage, on ground of sacrifice.
“We agreed on the figure just to stop the government from increasing the price of PMS,” he said.
Read also: UPDATED: Senate passes N70k minimum wage bill into law
Reacting to the argument by the organised Private Sector that they would not be able to pay N70,000, Onyeka expressed surprise, as the sector had earlier said that most of them pay as high as N78,000 to the least-paid worker in their establishments.
“We are at a loss that even the private sector which initially revealed at the tripartite committee meeting that the lowest paid in the sector was earning N78,000, could now turn around to say they can’t pay N70,000 as minimum wage.
“Our joy however, is that this is now a law and anyone who defaults will have the law to contend with.”
Etim Okon, deputy president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), while also speaking on the issue, welcomed the new minimum wage, warning that the organised labour would move to ensure that the governors implement the new wage as passed and that workers are paid as and when due at the states.
“We had proposed that states owing workers have the salaries deducted from their FAAC allocations and paid directly to workers, if that will solve the problems.
“There are no genuine reasons why these governors will be withholding workers’ salaries while they engage in extravagant spending. They have forgotten that without the workers, the states will not function,” he said.
The Bill, which was sent by President Bola Tinubu, sought to amend the 2019 minimum wage to increase the National Minimum Wage from N30,000 to N70,000 and reduce review interval from five years to three years.
Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in his assessment of the new Minimum Wage, noted that “Addressing the issue of poor take-home pay through minimum wage policies requires a nuanced approach that considers the economic, social, and labour market impacts, as well as potential policy solutions to support both workers and employers.”
The lawyer wondered if these factors were considered by the Tinubu government before arriving at the N70,000 Minimum Wage
“A situation where workers can neither fend for themselves, nor their families is deplorable and must be avoided. It can lead to chaos, anarchy and uncontrollable social unrest,” he said.
He further said that the increase comes at a time Nigerians are asphyxiating under severe hardship amid excruciatingly high cost of living driven by spiraling inflation and dire economic challenges in an inclement environment of palpable government wastes, leakages and ostentatious living.
Ozekhome, citing an example with a bag of rice, said: “Nigerians have refused to indulge in any euphoria of jubilation as the N70,000 will not even be able to buy a bag of rice which now sells for between N75,000 and N100,000 per bag. They wonder how this meager enhancement of salary will positively affect the high cost of accommodation, transportation, electricity, healthcare services, living standards, etc.”
For him, “The take-home pay of every worker ought to be a matter of public interest, especially to those minding the levers of power, because it is a critical issue affecting all workers, employers of labour and the entire economy. Poor compensation or remuneration breeds inequality and affects productivity and this can serve as a catalyst for social vices such as stealing, banditry, insurgency, kidnapping, suicide, homicide, armed robbery, prostitution, human and drug trafficking, etc.”
He cited the global best practices under which the international organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations have coined terms such as “minimum wage”, “living wage” and “reasonable wage” to describe the different types of wages every worker should be entitled to, with a view to addressing poor wages and its attendant consequences.
