Organised labour has expressed flexibility regarding the demand for a N615,000 minimum wage for workers, citing the challenging economic conditions in the country.
Labour has criticized statements attributed to governors through the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), which suggested they were focusing on what individual states could sustainably afford.
Labour cautioned state governors against making inflammatory remarks that could escalate tensions in the nation’s industrial sector regarding the new national minimum wage.
The labour group emphasized that governors must collaborate with the 37-member committee tasked with devising a new national minimum wage.
Dr. Tommy Okon, Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), clarified that organised labour believes the governors’ statements were misunderstood.
“They can’t say that they are working on what individual states can pay. I think the governors may be talking about what they can add to the minimum wage at the end of the day because what will be agreed upon is the baseline which nobody should pay less than”, Okon said.
“But they can pay higher than that. I think that is what they are saying.
“They cannot be telling us that they are reviewing or setting up a committee to work on what they can pay individually. Two committees cannot be working on the same issue.
“The governors are members of the tripartite committee on the New National Minimum Wage, so they cannot set up another committee or work independently from the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government.
“Maybe the governors are talking about implementation. It is right for the governors to set up an implementation committee. They need to know their staff’s strengths and sources of funds to implement the new wage.
“But to say that they are working on what individual states can pay outside the committee that the Federal Government has set up cannot be correct.
“Do not forget that the governors are members of the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government. So, they cannot do anything outside the committee.
“If what is reported is correct or if the governors own up to the statement as reported, it is a recipe for serious industrial unrest.
“And no nation can accept that because any nation that works like will face unprecedented industrial unrest and can never grow. No nation grows amid industrial chaos.
“We think the governors will tread with caution and avoid inflammatory utterances. We still believe the statement was not from them.”
An official of NLC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the governors are treading on dangerous ground that could set the nation’s industrial space on fire.
“You cannot be talking about reviewing what individual state can pay sustainably outside the committee set up to look out will be the baseline or minimum”, he said.
“Whatever opinion you have is what you should bring to the negotiation table. You come to the negotiation table and argue your opinion.
“We do not want to trade words with the governors because they are members.
“(But) they are treading on a dangerous ground that can set the nation’s industrial space on fire.
“We have made our demand which is a very generous one from the breakdown we released on Thursday on the N615,000 demand.
“You can see that we have been very magnanimous. Several expenses, including basic things like recharge cards, entertainment, extended family and others, are missing.
“Don’t forget that this demand was a product of questionnaires we sent out to states and local governments. We did not manufacture it.
“Again, take the issue of electricity which we allocated N20,000 a month. At the time we did it, the electricity tariff had not been adjusted by about 300 per cent. With the adjustment, it has affected nearly every other thing in terms of inflation.
“We know the governors can do much more than what we are demanding. We have passed through this road before.
“The problem with the governors is that they place their aggrandizement far above public good and workers’ welfare.
“That many former governors are facing prosecution by the nation’s anti-graft agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is a pointer to the fact that governors have the resources to pay much higher than our demand.”
