National Minimum Wage Act: Labour ready to storm NASS, 36 State Houses of Assembly tomorrow

SOJI-EZE FAGBEMI looks at the position of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on the issue of the National Minimum Wage and the plan by National Assembly to remove the issue from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List. He reports the outcome and the efforts by the organised labour to stop the move.

THE organised labour, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), will storm the National Assembly and the 36 State Houses of Assembly tomorrow to protest the plan by the political class, especially the legislators, to remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

The NLC has described the plan as a “ruinous path,” being undertaken by the “opportunistic and narrow thinking politicians.” Besides embarking on a nationwide protest, congress has also warned that it would declare and enforce a national strike action if the legislators continue the plan to move the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to the Concurrent list.

In a communique issued after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, the congress said it would commence a national protest from tomorrow to the National Assembly. It said the protest would be held concurrently in all the 36 states to the Houses of Assembly in the state capitals.

Congress warned that Nigerian workers would not lie low and watch the hard-fought rights which are of global standards bastardized by the Nigerian political class; even as it stated that it took the decision because of its implications to the working-class family and the masses of the people of Nigeria.

The communique, signed by the NLC President, Comrade Ayubba Wabba, and the Acting General Secretary, Comrade Ismail Bello said: “The NEC decided that there will be a national protest action commencing from March 10, 2021, at the Federal Capital Territory and especially to the National Assembly. The protest is to make a strong statement that Nigerian workers would not lie low and watch hard-fought rights which are of global standards bastardized by opportunistic and narrow thinking politicians.

“The NEC resolved that the national protest action will be concurrently held in all the 36 states of the federation and to the different State Houses of Assembly across Nigeria.”

It added: “The NEC decided that should the need arise; it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike action especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.”

Speaking after the NEC meeting, Comrade Wabba called on President Muhammadu Buhari to beware of fifth columnists and advised him not to allow fifth columnists masquerading as politicians to derail his government by railroading the legislature into removing the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent list – a move the global workers’ solidarity regards as anathema.

Wabba said: “The attention of the entire working class in Nigeria has been drawn to a bill which was listed in the House of Representatives as HB 950. This bill, which was sponsored by Hon. Garba Datti Mohammed of Sabon Gari Federal Constituency, Kaduna State, had passed the first and second reading in February 2021. The NEC considered that the bill is a classic case of the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob as it has all the imprimatur of anti-workers forces in the political establishment.

“The NEC considered Hon. Garba Datti was only a hireling in the plot by his sponsors to disorient, injure, and exterminate Nigeria’s working class. The NEC further reasoned that the attempt to undermine Nigeria’s working class is a foreboding effort to destroy the very fabrics that hold the Nigerian nation together. This is more so given the fact that the organized labour in Nigeria is about the only truly pan Nigerian organization with diverse membership that cuts across tribal, ethnic and religious affiliations which has continued to speak and champion for the rights of all Nigerians regardless of creed and breed.”

He pointed out that in contrast, the political elites in Nigeria had remained the problem of the Nigerian state who through their actions and inactions had ensured that Nigeria remained divided along ethnic, tribal and religious lines for their own selfish purposes; adding that this dividing influence of the political class had become increasingly prominent in recent times.

“This challenge has even transcended to public institutions which have shifted away from holding and promoting nationalistic views to championing very narrow and hollow ethno-religious sentiments,” he said.

The NEC further described as very unfortunate the fact that at this challenging period in the national life, the political class sought to add fuel to the fire burning in the country by declaring a war against the working class of Nigeria and prosecuting the same by attacking the core rights of workers.

According to the NLC President, “the NEC described the current battle to remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent Legislative List as an attempt to negate the struggle and fight by Nigerian workers to get the National Minimum Wage passed as an Act of Parliament 40 years ago.

“The NEC reminded the political class that the National Minimum Wage is a global standard adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) through Convention 26 which was ratified by Nigeria on June 16, 1961. The ratification of this very important Convention by Nigeria was given statutory effect by the signing into law of the National Minimum Wage Act by the President Shehu Shagari government in May 1981.

“The NEC reasoned that the National Minimum Wage is an offshoot of a global convention ratified by Nigeria and that Nigeria as a sovereign state gave effect to the National Minimum Wage by putting it in the Exclusive Legislative List. The NEC warned that any attempt to move the National Minimum Wage from Exclusive Legislative List to Concurrent Legislative List will make Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

“The NEC described the current move by political mischief makers to remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List as not only retrogressive but also an attempt to enslave Nigerian workers. The NEC posited that the major determinant of a contemporary employer-employee contractual relationship is wage. The status of wages underlines the very nature of industrial relations in any clime.

“The current effort to bastardize the minimum wage through decentralizing its determination is clearly an attempt to further dehumanize and enslave Nigerian workers through the downgrading of their wage status from living to minimum and now to slavish wages.

“The NEC reminded the Nigerian political class that the effort to decentralize the determination and application of minimum wage is very selfish as the remunerations of all political office holders from Councilor to members of State Houses of Assembly to members of the National Assembly and even State Governors are centrally and uniformly determined by Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).”

He also posited that many political office holders had padded their remunerations beyond what was provided for by the RMAFC; adding therefore, that “what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.”

“Why would some lawmakers want to decentralize the national minimum wage which is a global standard used in more than 190 countries of the world while retaining the centralization of their own remuneration which is only a local standard?” he asked.

Wabba said: “The NEC further reasoned that the major reason for some unscrupulous politicians wanting the minimum wage on the Concurrent Legislative List, is to enable states to negotiate and fix their minimum wage, yet the concept, rationale and logic for a national minimum wage are to ensure that employees in government and organised private sector, and particularly, the unorganised, the unskilled and the vulnerable in the highly ungoverned space known as the informal sector, are protected.

“By protection, the NEC alluded to the need to ensure that the vulnerable are not overly exposed or exploited by their employers who pay wages so miserable they create a community of the working poor. The NEC further reasoned that the implications of creating communities of the working poor are obvious and obtuse as the impact range from the socio-economic to the political in collateral circumstances.”

According to him, the NEC, thus, asserted that a national minimum wage does not preclude the states from fixing their own minimums, except that they should not be lower than the national minimum which is the benchmark.

He added: “The NEC posited that in most countries, state minimums are much higher than the national minimum. NEC pointed out that in Nigeria there are examples of states paying higher than the national minimum. The NEC went on to posit that the national minimum wage is not synonymous with various salary structures adopted by the 36 states of the federation as each state adopts and pays what it can afford.

“The NEC also reiterated the point that the national minimum wage is a product of negotiations between labour, the organized private sector and government (represented by state governments, federal government and relevant departments, agencies and parastatals), and paying it is not a favour to workers. And that before agreeing on the national minimum wage, a number of issues are taken into consideration during negotiations with data provided by appropriate government agencies.

“At the end of negotiations, the final outcome on the national minimum wage is reasonable, realistic and implementable. Precedence shows that ability to pay is not dependent on surplus resources but on prudence, financial discipline, and the will to pay.”

The NEC also submitted that the logic of a national minimum wage has a calming effect on the entire nation including enhanced productivity, capacity and standard of living. The NEC, therefore, debunked the confusion of the national minimum wage with the issue of fiscal federalism.

The NEC argued that if this were the case, private firms would not have been brought under minimum wage laws anywhere in the world.

Wabba said: “Yet, a country-by-country analysis of minimum wage laws in the 26 federal nations of the world renders hollow the argument of those who want the national minimum wage removed from the Exclusive Legislative List.  This analysis reveals that jurisdictional arrangement is not an issue of federalism. Rather, it reflects the historical path and efficiency considerations of individual nations.”

“In the light of the foregoing, the NEC called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow fifth columnists masquerading as politicians to derail his government by railroading the legislature into removing the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent list — a move the global workers’ solidarity regards as anathema,” Wabba said.

In very succinct observations, the NEC went on to itemize the implications of removing the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.

According to Wabba, it could lead to the exclusion of the private sector (both organised and unorganised) from the concept, rationale and logic of a national minimum wage, yet, it is in this informal sector, as we pointed out earlier, that horrendously unfair labour practices take place.

Also, it will lead to the introduction of politics into wage determination, with dire consequences as was the case during the first republic; while it will negate the principle of collective bargaining with an inevitable destination, a hostile industrial space with diminished productivity and national security implications.

Besides, it will create over time an undesirable situation whereby state minimum variations across states become a “beggar-thy-neighbour” instrument in seeking to attract economic establishments to locate in states.

Wabba stated that it is in order to avoid this type of injurious competition that income tax, personal or company, is legislated on exclusively by the centre. Moreover, the NEC buttressed that a multiplicity of minimum wages will serve to create a segmentation of the labour market, which could weaken national economic growth and cohesion.

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