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…Says minimum wage should be reviewed yearly
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Joe Ajaero, has said that he would be more willing to face jail time than to follow any court order preventing him and his union from going on strike over the demand for a rise in the minimum wage.
Ajaero stated this on Tuesday, while speaking at the 2nd National Labour Adjudication and Arbitration Forum organised by the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), in Abuja.
The amount that some Nigerians earn today is equivalent to what is used to feed the pguard dogs in prison, according to Ajaoro, who expressed outrage over the government’s decision to remove fuel subsidy in just 24 hours while taking an eternity to mitigate the impact.
He faulted the law that says that the minimum should be reviewed after every five years, saying that the current economic situation and rising inflation no longer supports that.
Ajaero further noted that the instrument of tripartism and social dialogue have been grossly ineffective in the country as the government has repeatedly refused to honour agreements that come out of them.
According to the NLC President: “We have been paying lip service to the issue of tripartism. Yesterday, we had a meeting. Part of the agreement was talking about social dialogue. If tripartism produces an agreement and the agreement is not implemented, what is the essence of it?
“In October we had an agreement, up till today, nothing has been done. Then you call me for social dialogue again and we continue to social dialogue without any result. It is a problem. Everyday, we talk about social dialogue but it is important that we internalize it and know that we are serious about it.
“The essence of having a minimum wage with a review clause of five years is no longer acceptable. Before five years, you will have nothing. No matter what we negotiate today, with the present Nigeria’s economy, in five years, it cannot buy a bag of rice. So we have to look at all these issues when we talk about social dialogue. The law says we negotiate again after five years. After five years, I do not know that value of the currency we will have. I think we should have a system that every year, we would look at the level of inflation, and adjust.
“We cannot continue to keep the salaries constant while other variables continue to go up. Wage award for N35,000 and some states are not paying.
“I go to the office everyday and I see a lot of people who have not been paid or who are underpaid. Some people come to the office and they sleep there till the weekend because they cannot afford the transportation.
“It took you 24 hours to say that subsidy is gone and it is taking you seven months or eight months to decide what to do with it. Eight months after and there is no single CNG bus on the road and you continue to say these labour people are trouble makers.
“Then I will get an injunction that I should not go on strike. Will I take such instruction? I will not do it. I better go into jail because the money they are spending on feeding dogs in the prison now is more than what Nigerians are earning.
“The UN says minimum wage should be two Dollars per day and we did the maths and that is about 500,000 Naira in a month here and the government is telling us it is unrealistic. So what do we do?
“We are meeting with employers here so that we can all understand these issues. It is not all about fighting. Even with the issue of wage award, the private sector is not paying, the states are not paying. And even in the minimum wage committee, you go and pick all the governors that have not paid the N30,000 minimum wage. How are we going to discuss it with them? That one is dead on arrival. They have not paid the 30,000 so are they the people that will not agree for you to increase?”
