Uncertainty surrounds minimum wage increase

There is little hope that the Federal Government and organised labour would arrive at a common ground for the implementation of the much-expected new national minimum wage this year.

This may be as labour has played into the hands of the government with the division in the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), where two individuals, Ayuba Wabba, and Joe Ajaero, lay claim to the headship of the NLC and have separate NLC state councils.

The N18,000 national minimum wage had been due for review in April 2016. Former President Goodluck Jonathan signed it into effect in 2011 to last for five years before another review, but the NLC is divided on what the new minimum wage should be.

In May this year, the Federal Government set up a 16-member committee to look into three key issues – minimum wage review, palliatives to cushion the effect of the increase in the pump price of petrol from N87.50k to N145, and appropriate pricing for petroleum products. The committee came in the wake of labour’s strike/protest against the petrol price hike came up with three other committees that would specifically deliberate and make recommendations on minimum wage, palliatives and appropriate pricing of petroleum products.

Wabba faction of the NLC earlier in the year turned in documents to the Federal Government in which it sought an upward review of the minimum wage from N18,000 to N56,000. In contrast, the Joe Ajaero faction asked for N90,000.

A member of one of the factions speaking anonymously told BusinessDay on Thursday that the three smaller committees were yet to be constituted even as the 16-man committee had not been meeting since its inauguration in May.

“The three committees, one of which was to specifically look into the minimum wage review, have not been constituted,” the labour leader said. Although the source disagreed that the division in the NLC was the reason for government’s delay in opening discussion with labour on the new minimum wage, the labour leader, nevertheless, acknowledged that the factionalisation was a setback for the labour movement.

It would be recalled that Lawal Babachir, secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in May, during a meeting with labour, announced that President Buhari had appointed Mohammed Buba as the new chairman of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) following labour’s request for the constitution of the board of the PPPRA.

Babachir had said” “I’m happy to announce we had a very successful meeting with an outcome that will make every Nigerian happy. “First of all, on the side of the government, we want to thank the NLC for their magnanimity in calling off the strike, and we thank Nigerians for being patient while the strike lasted.”

“In this meeting, we have arrived at some major decisions. First of all, you would recall that before we adjourned the last meeting, we had basically decided to discuss three major issues. One was the issue of the minimum wage for workers, both in government and in the private. And also labour had raised the issue of requirement to be involved in the implementation of the half a trillion naira in the budget meant for palliatives for Nigerians that are on the fringes of society economically.

“Then, labour had requested that the government reconstitute the board of PPPRA which, they said that, had it been in place, the issue of the misunderstanding in the price regulation would not have arisen. This evening, I’m proud to announce that, first of all, a 16-man committee has been set up as a technical committee – half from the labour side and half from the government side – to discuss issues concerning the minimum wage, to advise on the setting up and possible modalities of working out the committee to discuss minimum wage issue.”