The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed concerns about a reported plan by lawmakers to transfer labour issues from the exclusive to the concurrent list, saying it would undermine the national minimum wage and jeopardise the well-being of average Nigerian workers, GLORIA NWAFOR reports.
As the process of amending the Constitution takes off, labour is gearing up for another round of agitations over the long-standing move to move the minimum wage to the concurrent list.

Ahead of the debates, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) cautioned against the move, urging the National Assembly to stay away from the proposal.

Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the NLC, Funmi Sessi, while presenting the labour’s position at the Senate’s South-West Zonal Public Hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution in Lagos, said the call became necessary owing to attempts by some interests working with some legislators to remove labour provisions in Schedule 1, Item 34 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative List.

According to her, the plot was to enable state governments to fully institutionalise slave labour camps across the country through the deregulation of Nigeria’s labour laws. She argued that removing the minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list will invalidate the national minimum wage system.

“Nigeria signed up to this through the ratification on June 16, 1961, of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention No. 026. This will open the gates to slave wages across Nigeria. The removal of labour provisions would allow many state governors who already violate many laws to institutionalise the abuse of workers’ rights,” she said. She noted that removing the labour provisions from the exclusive was an existential threat to trade unions and equitable industrial relations in Nigeria.

“Nigerian workers are prepared to resist this internal colonialism with the last drop of their blood. We resisted this evil before. We will resist it again,” she added.

Similarly, in a communique issued at the end of its Central Working Committee meeting in Ogun State, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, reaffirmed that organised labour would firmly oppose any effort to undermine the minimum wage, calling on lawmakers to uphold justice and protect the interests of the citizens they represent.

“All over the world, there is a minimum wage for the protection of workers. In Nigeria, there is legislation for a minimum wage of N70,000. The law permits states to pay more than that, and in fact, many states currently pay above the minimum wage,” he said.

Ajaero insisted that states must not be allowed to determine minimum wages independently, warning that such a move would endanger the welfare of average workers across the federation.

Describing the move as “an exercise in futility”, Ajaero argued that the issue of minimum wage is treated globally as a national matter in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, which regard member countries, not sub-national units such as states, as entities.

He alleged that the plan by lawmakers was a calculated attempt to bastardise the national minimum wage structure and shift other labour-related responsibilities to the states, including the establishment of state industrial courts that would independently handle wage disputes, a move, he said, violates ILO principles.

“The National Assembly should not go into this exercise in futility unless members also allow their respective states to determine their wages.
“If they attempt to smuggle labour matters into the concurrent list, we will mobilise workers to protest against it, even up to election day,” the labour leader said.

Before now, during the nationwide public hearing on the new national minimum wage held across the six geo-political zones, governors demanded a review of the revenue allocation formula to enable them to implement the proposed national minimum wage.

They made the call that states should be allowed to determine their minimum wage based on their financial capacity, which means amending the Constitution by moving item 34 of the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

They insisted that the current revenue allocation must be reviewed in favour of states to empower them to meet workers’ expectations. Speaking during the meeting at the southwest zone, Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, among others, called for an urgent review of the revenue-sharing formula to favour states and local governments.

Adeleke based his submission on the fact that Nigerians live in the states, so the revenue-sharing formula should be reviewed in tandem with the public outcry for the allocation of more resources to states. He also insisted that the states should be allowed to negotiate with their workers’ pay.

For emphasis, Nigeria is duty-bound as a signatory to ILO Convention 131 to implement a minimum wage regime in line with global standards.Recall that when the N70,000 minimum wage was passed, it was a tug of war between organised labour and the state on implementing the new wage. The organised labour had to shut down many states over poor implementation of the minimum wage. Currently, some states still default in paying the N70,000.

A former president of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Peter Esele, who recalled when he was part of the national minimum wage negotiation process, said: “I hope that governors stand and treat workers right because when you do so, you stimulate economic growth. The super-rich do not stimulate growth; it is the middle and those struggling because they have more needs to spend on.”

In 2021, a bill, which sought to decentralise the minimum wage negotiation by removing it from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list, passed second reading at the House of Representatives. The bill, the Differential Wage Bill, had the support of state governors, stating that it negated the principle of true federalism.

According to the sponsor, Garba Datti Mohammed (a lawmaker from Kano), the bill is to allow both the federal and state governments to freely negotiate minimum wage “with their workers in line with our federalism”.

During the debate at the plenary, Mohammed said: “Many states have not been able to implement the national minimum wage because it was imposed on them from Abuja.”

However, workers opposed the bill, where they said that the bill was dead on arrival. A past president of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, during whose tenure the matter was brought up, said any attempt to remove the national minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List was a mischievous effort to foster crisis, chaos and anarchy in the country.

Wabba said the national minimum wage served as social protection by providing minimum income floors to safeguard low earners. He said Labour’s argument for the retention of the national minimum wage on the exclusive legislative list was also to highlight the fact that the minimum wage was a tool for social inclusion and poverty reduction.

“For Nigerian workers, it has been a catalogue of workplace and trade union rights violations. First, is the criminal refusal by some state governors to pay the new national minimum wage and consequential increase in salaries, thus violating workers’ rights,” he said.

However, as the country has moved for the review of the 1999 Constitution, labour has alleged that some persons are again bringing it to the fore, insisting that the states should be allowed to negotiate with their workers’ pay.

The President of the TUC, Festus Osifo, in an interview with The Guardian, insisted that the minimum wage must remain on the exclusive legislative list.

According to him, states received more than 200 per cent of what they used to receive from the FAAC allocation. He maintained that there is no excuse for states not to meet the payment of the new minimum wage. Since the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, which has increased FAAC allocation to states, Osifo said states should have no reason to complain of low revenue.

The TUC chief said labour is advocating that the Federal Government should pay workers directly from the state FAAC allocation whenever they default.

A labour expert and lawyer, Paul Omoijiade, who kicked against the move, said it would lead to anarchy. Noting that states have not been compliant with all employment laws, especially on minimum wage, Omoijiade said Nigeria would only want true federalism when it is in their favour.

“They want it so that they would be able to pay the workers peanuts. That is a lazy approach to the entire process by the state governments. Labour creates wealth and workers should be paid their wages,” he said.

On why the minimum wage must remain in the Exclusive Legislative List, Secretary, TUC Lagos State Council, Abiodun Aladetan, said the most vulnerable and those at the bottom of the economic ladder would be further protected, noting that the nation’s minimum wage is currently one of the worst globally.

“It must be noted that Nigeria is duty-bound as a signatory to ILO Convention 131 to implement a minimum wage regime in line with global standards.

“Also, the private sector should not be excluded through the decentralisation of the minimum wage. If this is allowed to stand, it will lead to the segmentation of the Nigerian labour market and the attendant crises, “he said.