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By Bimbola Oyesola, [email protected]
As discourse on the new minimum wage continues, the organised private sector (OPS) has reiterated that ability to pay and sustainability of businesses to ensure job security must be given top consideration.
The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA charged organised labour to give priority to job security in the ongoing negotiation for a new national minimum wage.
Director-general of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said labour should refocus its effort on protecting jobs, boosting the capacity of the private sector where they work to create more jobs and ensuring sustainability and ability to pay.
“Ability to pay is a fundamental part of the issue and we have to take that into consideration. Enterprise sustainability is also a fundamental part of those parameters that we have to take into consideration,” he said.
He stated that the economy was also a fundamental part of the parameters, adding that the needs of workers were also a fundamental aspect of the conversation.
The NECA boss advised labour to agree to a figure that was realistic and sustainable, adding that, in the last three years, hundreds of companies have either exited the country, shut down or changed business model.
He also urged labour to consider the survival of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which, according to him, are the largest job providers.
Organised labour, represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), at the end of the committee’s sitting, presented a national minimum wage of N250,000, while the federal government offered N62,000.
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Oyerinde explained that, if employers must pay the proposed N62,000 minimum wage, then workers must be willing to discuss the issue of productivity.
“Everything basically rests on the economy. Can the economy carry it? Can organised businesses as currently constituted, carry it? Those are parameters that we can’t run away from,” he said. “Now, the reality for us is this, as organised private sector, I would not want to delve into the realities of government. I would not want to delve into the N250,000 realities of organised labour.”
Oyerinde stressed the need to allow the rule of law to prevail on the issue of the national minimum wage, as stipulated in the ILO Convention 131.
He noted that what was submitted by the tripartite committee was an alignment of interest and not an agreement.
The NECA DG said the debate has now left the hands of the tripartite committee, explaining that everyone is now awaiting the decision of President Bola Tinubu.
He mentioned that the demand by organised labour at this period has the potential to cripple small and medium enterprises and push many other businesses into coma: “It is important to strike a balance between workers’ needs, the current economic situation, ability to pay and productivity.”
According to Oyerinde, it was no secret that organised businesses were faced with multidimensional challenges, ranging from multiple taxes, levies and fees to astronomical power costs, rising interest rates and exchange rates among many others.
“We urge government to fast-track the implementation of its interventions to make life more bearable for workers, businesses, and Nigerians in general,” he said.
He maintained that any disruption of organized businesses’ activities could have serious consequences on job security and the sustainability of businesses.
“Businesses need to be alive and stay sustainable for jobs to be created and for government to generate taxes,” he said.
