Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Minimum wage for workers; maximum pay for senators

By Afis A. Oladosu
06 May 2016   |   2:51 am
Brethren, it was like a bolt from the blue. Nobody could have thought of it. Who could have thought that it is around this time that the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) would demand a new minimum wage.
Chairman, NASFAT Porto Novo branch, El Hadji Moubaracou AbdulLatifu (left); Chairman, NASFAT 21 years Anniversary, Alhaji Remi Bello; NASFAT Chief Missioner, Alhaji Abdullahi Akinbode; Alajase of Ajase Land; and NASFAT President, Engr. Kamil Bolarinwa during the 5th Biennial Women Conference of NASFAT held between April 29 and May 1, 2016 in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin.  

Chairman, NASFAT Porto Novo branch, El Hadji Moubaracou AbdulLatifu (left); Chairman, NASFAT 21 years Anniversary, Alhaji Remi Bello; NASFAT Chief Missioner, Alhaji Abdullahi Akinbode; Alajase of Ajase Land; and NASFAT President, Engr. Kamil Bolarinwa during the 5th Biennial Women Conference of NASFAT held between April 29 and May 1, 2016 in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin.  

In the Name of the Almighty,
the Beneficent, the Merciful

“Do they distribute the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of this world and have raised some of them above others in degrees [of rank] that they may make use of one another for service…” (Quran 43:32)

Brethren, it was like a bolt from the blue. Nobody could have thought of it. Who could have thought that it is around this time that the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) would demand a new minimum wage. After all, these are indeed trying times for the nation. These are times when some states are owing workers months of salary areas. These are times which, at the Federal level, workers are being paid ‘truncated’ salaries.

But the argument has been canvassed that there has never been a good time to demand workers’ right from the ‘small’ and ‘big’ bourgeoisies in town. Around five years ago when the demand for #18,000 as the national minimum wage was made, the argument then was that the timing was inauspicious. It was contended that the economy could not afford the huge wage bill that would arise from such ‘gargantuan’ increment in workers’ wage bill. I think we are all wiser nowadays. I believe we are all now better educated. We now know that Nigerian workers ought to have demanded more. The national minimum wage which was then pegged at #18,000 still left their ‘excellencies’ with much luxuries and comfort. What was left in the treasury each month were looted and turned to the personal perquisites of some of their excellencies. The ill-gotten wealth acquired by some of the state governors are instructive of characters which were suffering either from incurable insanity or from acute redemptive spiritual capital.

Long before contemporary movements and campaigns for workers rights started, the religion of Islam had laid down eternal principles for their satisfaction and preservation. These rights are divinely instituted in the Quran. They have equally been exemplified by the Prophet of the Almighty, Muhammad (s.a.w). In Quran 43:32, we learn of and about the divine scheme in creating socio-economic and political hierarchies: the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, the leader and the led. Fundamental to good and crisis-free labour relationships therefore, is the acknowledgement by all stakeholders that the occupation of this temporary status, including that of the employer and the employee, are not in any way prescriptive of our status in the reckoning of our Creator. Thus, the pious artisan who does the job for which he receives his monthly pay conscientiously has more value in the divine scheme than the iniquitous employee whose singular interest is to make money and more money even if that means turning his fellow human beings to beasts of burden. Thus brethren, Islam demands from employers of labour to treat their employees with dignity; to relate to them as they would their kith and kin.

Brethren, as an employer of labour, the Prophet of Islam used to sit on the floor and eat with his servant boy, Anas ibn Malik, who served him for ten years. Anas is reported to have said that the Prophet (s.a.w) never rebuked him for anything: “When I did something, he never questioned my manner of doing it; and when I did not do something, he never questioned my failure to do it. He was the most good-natured of all men.” The Prophet is reported to have said again: Your employees are your brothers upon whom the Almighty has given you authority, so if a Muslim has another person under his control, he/she should feed them with the like of what one eats and clothe them with the like of what one wears and you should not overburden them with what they cannot bear and if you do so, help them in their jobs.

Brethren, I have since come to the conclusion that the NLC’s demand for appropriate pay for a dignified work done actually hacks back to the Prophetic statement which reads: “Whoever employs someone to work for him, he must specify for him his wage in advance.” He says again: I will be an opponent of three categories of people on the Day of Resurrection: one who makes a covenant in My name but proves treacherous; one who sells a free person and eats his price; and one who employs a worker and takes full work from him but does not pay him for his labour’”

Brethren, when careful consideration is given to the pauperized wages most Nigerian workers receive in the country today, one begin to wonder where exactly does the soul of the nation lie. Again, when a comparative analysis of wages being received by workers here in Nigeria and the one being received in other climes with similar socio-economic and political experience is done, one cannot but wonder why the NLC always get the argument wrong. In other words, in certain parts of the world, the wages that workers receive are usually determined by the number of hours they spend on the job. Thus, wages are negotiated and decided on hourly basis. In my view, such an arrangement makes for better productivity; both the employer and the employee usually find themselves in a win-win situation. Hourly pay also have great potentials for putting an end to the exploitation of workers particularly in the private sector where sharp practices which are inimical to workers’ welfare are rife.

Furthermore, brethren, I am one of those who always pooh-pooh and dismiss this whole idea of minimum wage for another reason. In other words, I always wonder how could the NLC begin to talk about the minimum wage without requesting for information on the “maximum wage” our politicians receive every hour, every day, every month?. Put differently, how can we begin to talk about the “minimum wage” when adequate account has not been given of the “maximum wage” being received by the school-drop-out-turned-politician and councillor in my local government area whose pay at the end of the month shows the scorn with which my society treat education? How can we talk of minimum pay in the absence of the knowledge about maximum pay being received by our politicians?

But upon in-depth reflection, I thought the demand for what the NLC refers to as the minimum wage is nothing but an indirect campaign against the trend in our society today where those in governance benchmark their prosperity against the adversity of the populace, where wealth and providence are placed in the hands of the miserly and the hard-hearted. I thought the demand for the minimum wage is a subtle search for an end to the situation where the waste-bin in governors lodges and apartments are full of food items and drinks while ordinary citizens suffer from penury and hunger. The demand for new minimum is therefore, nothing but a metaphor for the pursuit, by the hapless Nigerian worker, of an end to the situation where government employees are oppressed by their employers, abused by governor’s aides and dishonoured by the opulence and extravagance of governor’s wives and children. I believe this season, “the season of change”, would be seized of these realities. (08122465111 for text messages)

0 Comments