Labour unions allege plans to decentralise minimum wage talks, prompting threats of a 30-day strike. Stay informed on the developments.

On Tuesday, the Nigeria Labour Congress warned that it may cause a one-month shutdown of the country, as an act of protest against the National Assembly’s intentions to deregulate the national minimum wage.

The NLC issued a threat while the country awaits a new national minimum wage, which has been subject to negotiations involving Organised Labour, the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector for several months.

Joe Ajaero, the NLC President, announced the stance of their union at an event that coincided with the 67th Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association Annual General Meeting in Lagos.

According to Ajaero, a Joint Committee comprising members of the Senate, House of Representatives and Judiciary is currently in session. One decision they have reached is to shift section 34 from the Exclusive Legislative List to Concurrent List. This will enable state governors determine your wage without any minimum requirement suggesting that you cannot control what your earning should be.

If the House of Representatives and Senate pass a law that harms Nigerian workers, they will be demoted to drivers and gatekeepers while experiencing a month-long strike. We refuse to permit governors or National Assembly members from enforcing meager wages on employees while imposing destitution upon society. Organized Labor won’t tolerate this outcome.

The president of the NLC went on to say that allowing individuals to determine their own wages would be considered illegal. The constitution has a provision for equal pay for equal work, so if we conducted job analysis and evaluation, it is possible that a clerk in one location could be performing the same duties as another in Sokoto.

Paying one person less than another under the guise of wage decentralization goes against fairness and equal treatment under the law.

The NLC president notes that the wage is recognized by the International Labour Organisation as a national law, and thus it does not fall under sub-national jurisdiction.

According to the labour leader, it is a legal requirement for every country to implement their own minimum wage policy and some regions may choose to exceed this amount.

He reported that certain individuals, influenced by the governors, were claiming they could not afford to pay N60,000 despite having their members present during negotiations with labor. He denounced this as an act of ill will.

He stressed that we have alerted our members about the potentially harmful and unpatriotic law that these individuals are attempting to enact. We cannot tolerate any further difficulties in this country where many already experience hardship, as some people with privileged positions wish to cause harm to workers and citizens. This behavior will not be condoned.

He further stated that the labor collective will not tolerate meager pay akin to slavery.

The NLC will resist any effort to discredit Nigerian workers in a federation, as they are recognized nationwide.

Every governor across the nation is receiving identical benefits. They are not being compensated based on their state’s revenue, yet they demand that workers should be paid accordingly. Therefore, using revenue as a criterion for minimum wage payments is an empty argument. According to him, any governor who makes this case does not comprehend what governance entails .

Ajaero stressed that a governor should utilize their abilities and expertise towards advancing the state’s prosperity.

He cautioned that Governors should cease lamenting and strive to improve their performance. Merely bemoaning the inability to pay every year will not suffice, because they have considerable financial resources at their disposal.

According to Ajaero, a family consisting of six individuals can survive on N60,000 per month and still maintain employment.

He suggested that NLC had put forward numerous alternatives besides the minimum wage figure, and if the government had tackled these earlier on instead of removing oil subsidies, Nigeria would have been saved from its present predicaments.

Mr. Kingsley Chinda, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, stated that a proposal to transfer control over minimum wage from the exclusive list to concurrent legislative list is currently being considered by National Assembly Committees on Constitutional Review.

The clarification from the minority leader was in response to Ajaero’s proposal that the parliament should initiate measures to decentralize minimum wage, so that each state could determine an appropriate amount for payment.