Nigeria Labour Union and Matters Arising

THE LABOUR AND MATTERS ARISING

According to the International Labour Organisation, ILO, the minimum wage refers to the lowest wage that an employer is allowed to pay the employee, the price floor below which workers may not be willing to sell their labour. In Nigeria, the national minimum wage has its origins and powers from the exclusive list of the 1999 constitution (as amended) and the ILO conventions. The minimum wage was #120 in 1981 and increased to #5500 in 2001. It was increased to #18000 in 2011. According to the law, a review should be done every five years.  According to the budget implementation report 2017, released by the ministry of budget and national planning, the total revenue accruing to Nigeria was #2.657 trillion.  The recurrent expenditure stood at #2.7 trillion. The nation had to resort to loans to make up the deficit. This is clearly not the best of times for an upward review of salaries, economy-wise. More so when the nation is just coming out of an economic recession. However, when the profligacies of the political milieu are taken into consideration one would tend to support the agitating workers because what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. There is no second-class citizen in our nation. The government will have no moral right in denying workers an increment in their salaries. When the government increased the allocation to INEC by 160% it justified it by saying between the last election cycles and now the forex situation has plunged. With this obvious knowledge, the government has no moral right to deny the workers their right. We all live in the same economic realities.

There are a lot of leakages in the economy. The political class is wont to junket abroad at the least medical inconveniences.  Most travel abroad to treat simple ailments. If the president could be going overseas to cater for his health every now and then (with the attendant monetary costs), why wouldn't a councillor do the same? All these would be all well and good if not for the fact that they use government funds to finance their trip and treatment. To say the least, the political class is running the nation aground. The cost of governance is too humongous. The economy simply cannot cope under the crushing weight of the wage bill of the political office holders. When the worker is being paid the same amount allocated for the daily feeding of prisoners, people wonder if it is not better to be a prisoner than a worker. A worker has many dependents and many bills while a prisoner is devoid of these encumbrances. Something will ultimately have to give with the present state of things.

As things stand the Nigeria Governors' Forum is proposing #22,500 as minimum wage with the federal government proposing #24000. The organized labour would not take anything less than #30000. According to the Nigeria labour congress, "the Nigeria governors' forum is not a negotiating body but merely a political organization for the convenience of state governors." Upping the ante, the president of the United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, Mr Joe Ajaero posited that "labour had reverted to its original #65000 as an irreducible minimum"   with this Mexican standoff, as it were, the labour union declared a nationwide strike slated for November 6, 2018.

As everyone knows, an increase in the pump price of petrol causes virtually the price of everything to skyrocket. It is with this common knowledge that one is baffled by the palpable silence of the labour union in Nigeria to raise even a whimper against the increase in petrol pump price at the advent of the present administration. It is in the light of this that the current call for an increase in the living wage is baffling. The Nigerian labour union must know that an increase in the take-home pay of Nigerian workers is not an end in itself. Pray, what is the use of money if it can only buy less and fewer commodities due to inflation?  At #65 per litre in 2011  #18000 could buy 277 litres of petrol while it can only buy 124 litres now at #145 per litre. It is curious to know that at #151 to the dollar in 2001, the minimum wage was $119.21 while at #360 to one dollar the minimum wage now is about $50 presently. Meaning that the Nigerian worker earned more in 2011 than now.

One would expect the labour union to call for the pegging and standardization of workers' allowances across the board, the political class inclusive. Another tactic the can pursue is pegging the salaries and emoluments of Nigeria workers as a percentage of the extant salaries and emoluments of Nigeria teachers. That is to say, the salaries and emoluments of the political class should be pegged as a factor of the teachers' salaries. Any upward movement of the salaries of the former will necessitate the movement of the other. This way, no one would be left behind.

The call for price control may not work because we are not running a command economy. Capitalism entails competition. Competition in quality, the economy of scale, and, of course, pricing. When sellers buy at different prices and incur different associated costs, they can only be expected to sell at different prices. An increment in pay would also make employers reluctant to employ labour.

Labour leaders

 However while demanding for an increment in minimum wage, the labour union should also advocate for the blocking of existing leakages of finances, both at the economic and political level. They must take a stand against corruption and call for the ascendancy of due process in the polity.  The government must be encouraged to invest in workers' housing projects, and above all call for fiscal federation. To ensure a better quality of life for the workers, the union must look beyond increment in salaries as a major plank in their arsenal. The states are already saying they cannot pay the increment, which is not surprising since they appear not able to pay the existing minimum wage and are owing workers months in salary arrears.   In this wise, it is advisable for the labour union to take a different tack and look at the workers' welfare in a holistic way. According to Wikipedia, exploitation of labour is the act of treating one's workers unfairly for one's own benefit. It is a social relationship based on an asymmetry in a power relationship between workers and their employers. The workers who facilitate payment to government coffers and oil the wheels of governance in the nation should be paid their just wages. They are the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs. It is therefore unfortunate that they do not partake in eating the coconut broken on their collective heads.

 The issue of governors' so-called security vote should be put on the front burner because it is illegal and unconstitutional. Through the length and breadth of the country, there is no state where a governor has not paid himself due to the paucity of funds. If a governor can deem it fit to pay himself then the workers should also be paid. The jumbo severance pay of outgoing governors should also be vigorously resisted by the workers. A governor that served at most 8 years should not be allowed to get away with so much. Where the worker who retired after serving a state for 35 years goes years without being paid, the governor who "served" for 8 years gets his severance payout almost immediately. Pensioners go years without their gratuities or get them in piecemeal and workers' salaries are paid as percentages. It is not uncommon to hear governors paying workers 10% of 50%. It is a wonder how workers, sometimes, are able to keep track of the indebtedness of the government per their salaries and emoluments.  And the severance pay and allowances are such that would make any politician anywhere in the world drool and wish they were Nigerians. The jumbo payouts are out of this world. From landed properties in the home state and Abuja, choice cars being changed every 3 years at the behest of the state, to the health bills of the former governor being picked by the state forever, the governors are a rare breed indeed. When this largesse is put side by side the governors' mantra of inabilities to pay workers, one can only shake one's head in disbelief. The labour union should take up these issues in the court of public opinion and if need be, go to the courts to challenge these obvious illegalities and unconstitutionality. The governors spend in a second what they pay their workers in a month.  The states' labour should stop pandering to the whims and caprices of the governors. They should be firm in their demand for good governance especially concerning the welfare of the workers. The feudalistic tendencies of the governors should be checked.  A situation where Nigerian workers are among the least paid in the world does not speak well of the nation. Most African countries earn more than the Nigerian worker. Where Cameroon earns about $9 per hour, his Nigerian counterpart can only boast of about #32 cents per hour. The organized labour union should also campaign for credible candidates as governors. Individuals with proven labour friendliness should be supported during the gubernatorial election cycle. Only then would the labour union be doing their duties of safeguarding the overall interest of the Nigeria workers.