Get Guardian on GoogleThe Pentroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged organised labour to close ranks in its engagement with the Federal Government on minimum wage and workers’ welfare, warning against attempts to exploit differences between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
The President of PENGASSAN, Bosun Olabiyi-Agoro, said this while speaking at the Labour conference organised by the Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria (LACAN) in Abuja, and also called on workers to prepare for workplace disruptions arising from Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He argued that technological changes could make some existing jobs redundant and require workers to acquire new skills to remain employable.
PENGASSAN President said workers could no longer depend solely on collective training programmes by employers or unions to prepare for changes in the world of work.
He said several companies had invited him to discuss the future of work and the implications of AI for their employees barely two months after he assumed office.
According to him, some employers were already questioning the need to retain workers for tasks Artificial Intelligence could perform.
He urged workers to take personal responsibility for continuous learning, retraining and skills development to remain relevant in an increasingly technology-driven economy.
“Things are changing. And as workers, we must begin to adapt ourselves. We must begin to train and retrain ourselves to be suitable, because it is going to be survival of the fittest as we go along this journey,” he said.
On the minimum wage controversy, the PENGASSAN president maintained that the NLC and TUC needed to harmonise their positions before engaging the government, warning that attempts to divide the two labour centres could undermine workers’ collective bargaining strength.
He said the government should not assume that an agreement reached with one labour centre would automatically bind the other.
He likened the relationship between the two unions to a polygamous marriage, saying the government must treat both fairly rather than encourage divisions.
The labour leader, however, said the disagreement between the NLC and TUC was largely about the strategy for securing improved remuneration rather than whether Nigerian workers deserved better wages.
He recalled that the 2023 wage award failed to benefit many workers, particularly in several states where it was not implemented.
He noted that even at the federal level, the implementation did not fully reflect the agreement reached with organised labour.
He explained that the TUC’s position on the current wage negotiations was shaped by the need to avoid repeating the previous arrangement’s shortcomings by ensuring any new relief was incorporated into workers’ salaries.
He said the 2023 wage award failed many workers, making it necessary for organised labour to pursue a more sustainable arrangement.
He questioned whether workers who did not benefit from the previous wage award could be expected to celebrate another minimum wage agreement without addressing the earlier arrangement’s shortcomings.
The PENGASSAN boss urged the media to focus on the substance of the disagreement rather than portray the differences between the NLC and TUC as the central issue.
He said all parties, including the Federal Government, acknowledged that Nigerian workers were facing severe economic hardship and that their remuneration was inadequate.
“The only little thing that is causing (disagreement) is how we now rectify that error,” he said.
He further argued that Nigeria’s wage policy should prioritise improving workers’ earnings, noting that while the law provides for a minimum wage, there is no statutory maximum wage.
He called on the Federal Government to ensure that increased revenues, including those from developments in the international oil market, translated into improved living standards for ordinary Nigerians.
He expressed concern that rising fuel prices had increased transportation costs and intensified the pressure on workers’ incomes, while food prices had also surged.
He warned against allowing the benefits of higher national revenues to accrue disproportionately to a few individuals instead of improving the purchasing power of workers and households.
