Why Nigerian workers deserve a better deal

Few days ago, workers in the country joined their counterparts worldwide to mark the International Labour Day, otherwise called the Workers Day or May Day. The day offered another opportunity to reflect on the plight of Nigerian workers in terms of their welfare and working conditions. The theme for this year’s May Day in the country was, Labour Relations in Economic Recession: An Appraisal, which enabled observers to critically look at labour matters in the country with a view to bettering the lot of workers.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC); the major trade union bodies in Nigeria, have variously called on the Federal Government to urgently review the National Minimum Wage on the logical premise that inflation has increased suffering of the people, as the naira has lost its value and the impact of current wage has been completely eroded. The prevailing inflationary trend in the country, estimated at about 18 per cent, has made nonsense of the national minimum wage of N18,000 such that prices of items have skyrocketed to over 300 per cent, since the current minimum wage became operational.

We would recall that the minimum wage was last reviewed in 2010, even though the law demands for a joint review by federal and state governments, organised private sector and the workers unions, every five years. However, critics have argued that the Federal Government may not be able to pay a new wage because of the decline in international oil prices, reduced oil exports due to renewed militancy and other associated factors that have reduced government’s earnings and thus, paying a new minimum wage would definitely bring about higher wage bill for all levels of government that may be unsustainable at the moment.

Despite the pessimism, I still believe that deliberate efforts should be geared towards putting in place a virile framework that would enable the Nigerian worker truly earn a living in tandem with their productivity, hence the minimum wage should be increased. Not only that, there should be suspension of further discussions on the introduction of a bill to amend the constitution and make minimum wage a concurrent and not an exclusive legislative matter.

Therefore, state assemblies should now have the power to fix the minimum wage in their respective states. This should be discouraged, bearing in mind that salaries of political office holders are centrally worked out by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission as well as the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission. Hence, there should not be any discrimination and reasonable justification why workers salaries should not also be handled centrally. On this premise, the controversial bill, which seeks to remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative list to Concurrent Legislative List should, therefore, be stepped down.

In other countries, minimum wage is on the exclusive list because of its sensitive nature and importance to the economy. Transferring such a vital legislation to states would be counter-productive on the basis of the fact that many states in Nigeria are currently defaulting in the payment of workers’ salaries for several months in spite of bail-out received from the Federal Government and the recent Paris Club refund that should have significantly improved their finances. This is not so because many government workers in the states are still being owed salaries. Is it not worrisome that states have failed to pay the ridiculously and meager N18,000 minimum wage? What then happens, if the burden of administering the wage is left at their discretion? Maybe, workers in some states would be getting N10,000 as minimum wage? The bill before the National Assembly should not be allowed to thrive because of its anti-labour provisions.

It is generally believed that many political office holders enjoy more wages from the national resource than the average worker, who put in more productive time into labour but regularly battle the problems of job insecurity, poor remuneration, exacerbated by prevailing high inflation and irregular payment of salaries. The bitter truth is that many workers today live in rented apartments, cannot maintain vehicles because of the high cost of fuel, afford good food and access quality medicare. For those that have retired from active service, many of who have died in the course of processing their entitlements, those that are lucky to be alive continue to battle to get their hard-earned gratuities and pension allowances. At times, they are swindled by unscrupulous persons in a bid to fast-track the processing. Why this is possible is that the government has failed to do what is right in the interest of the senior citizens.

Other issues that have been the lot of Nigerian workers include victimisation, poor remuneration, absence of good working environment, casualisation, poor safety provisions at workplace, non-unionisation, non-payment of promotion arrears and summary dismissal, among others. Many Nigerians are still being employed as casual workers, which is at variance with the extant laws on labour practice. The casualisation of labour is common among many commercial organisations such as banks in the country whereby people are treated as slaves by giving the ridiculous targets to make. It is sad to note that many people are working in Nigeria without having anything to show for it because of the prevailing economic situation and the excess burden being placed on them by many unemployed persons, relatives and other dependents. The implication of this is that rather than becoming prosperous, many workers in the country live in penury and abject poverty.

Certainly, workers should justify their pay. Cases have been reported of workers engaging in sharp practices that bordered on truancy, laziness, dereliction of duty and poor quality of work. Under such conditions, the employer is not motivated to invest in the workforce.
Kupoluyi wrote from Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).

But when the worker is committed to his/her work with diligence, the onus lies on the employer to ensure that appropriate emoluments and working conditions are well provided. When this is done, employees would be better committed to their work while productivity would be greatly enhanced. Workers in other countries that are less endowed than Nigeria, often pay their workforce realistic wages that could sustain them to live comfortably. Nigeria should treat it workers better.

To ensure that the interest of the workers are promoted, government should put in place, sustainable policies to alleviate the suffering of Nigerian workers through subsidised housing, transportation and affordable medicare. While the government is being called upon to be alive to its responsibilities, the two major labour unions NLC and TUC should harmonise their positions and negotiate a realistic national minimum wage without forgetting the organised private sector in the new arrangement because they are an integral part of the economy. The use of strike should be de-emphasised as much as possible while more of lobbying, consultations, negotiations and bargaining should be embraced. That way, a more realistic framework would be put in place to make it possible for Nigerian workers to get a better deal!
Kupoluyi wrote from Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).