Labour Strike; Parties at make or mar parley

Despite last  Saturday’s acceptance by Governors of the 36 states that they will pay the new minimum wage, labour insisted yesterday that it is proceeding with the three-day warning strike

scheduled to begin on Wednesday as it gives further conditions to call off the strike. The Federal Government has however scheduled a meeting today with the labour leaders with the governors in attendance, to find a way of averting the strike.

The decision to proceed with the strike was made yesterday in Abuja by Comrade Promise Adewusi, the  Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) who is also Chairman of  National Labour Strike Coordinating Committee, flanked by leaders of the  Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Civil Society Coalition at a press conference they jointly addressed.

Giving reasons for their position, leaders of  the nation’s labour movement and its civil society counterpart stated that what Nigerian workers want is a signed agreement indicating the readiness of  both the Federal and  State Governments to pay the new minimum wage.

According to Adewusi: “What the NLC, TUC and the Nigerian working people demand is a signed agreement between the Federal and State governments on one hand and the NLC and TUC on the other, stating:

*That  the New National Minimum Wage of N18,000 will be implemented across board based on salary relativity that will not distort the payment table at the Federal, State and Local Government levels;

*That payment of the new Minimum Wage will take effect from March 23, 2011 being  the day President Goodluck Jonathan signed the New National Minimum Wage into law;

*That the arrears of the Minimum Wage will be paid within three months;

*That  workers will not be victimized over the Minimum Wage by way of mass retrenchment, increase in tax or in any other form.”

The labour leaders further stated that while they would welcome the proposed meeting with the Governors’ Forum, it would have been better if the issues in dispute were resolved earlier, adding that it was amazing that state governments like Abia, Kwara, Imo and Kebbi which proposed N25,000  and above as minimum wage during the period of negotiations, could now be reluctant to pay N18,000.

Some states’ stand amazing

According to them: “It is amazing to us that a state government like Abia which last year proposed a N46,700 National Minimum Wage would delay in paying the N18,000 Minimum Wage;  it is equally shocking that states like Kwara, Imo and Kebbi which proposed N30,000 Minimum Wage and the FCT and Anambra State governments which offered in 2010 to pay N25,000 Minimum Wage will show reluctance when asked to pay N18,000.”

Giving further insight into what led to their stand, the labour leaders stated that:

“It is also instructive that when in 2009 and 2010 the Federal Government gathered its agencies as experts on the Minimum Wage, their submissions on what should be the New Minimum Wage was higher than N18,000.

“For instance, the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) proposed N34,200 monthly; the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) came to the conclusion that the New Minimum Wage should be N41,000; the National Productivity Centre proposed N22,000; the Central Bank N20,216.01 and the National Bureau of Statistics proposed N18,036.73.”

FG, Govs meet labour leaders today

Meanwhile, the Federal Government and state governors are today meeting leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and their Trade Union of Nigeria, TUC, counterparts in a desperate move to avert the three-day warning strike.

An earlier meeting between Federal government and the labour leaders a week ago, ended in a deadlock over, among others, the table of payment in which the government said the  new wage would only apply to workers on levels 01 to 06.

Leaders of NLC and TUC rejected the table and insisted that all levels of employees in the public and private sector that employ 50 workers and above must benefit from the new wage.

Already, leaders of NLC and TUC had declared that the warning strike slated to commence on Wednesday would be total as air space, seaports, financial sector, petroleum industry, manufacturing and other sectors of the economy would be closed down during the strike.

State governors, under the umbrella of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, had at their meeting on Friday agreed to pay the minimum wage.

Sources within the leadership of organized labour told Vanguard on condition of anonymity that besides the fact that government through Revenue Allocation, Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission, RAMFC, will likely present a new table to include all grades of workers in the payment table as against the one presented last Monday, labour had other demands.

According to him, “we expect the Federal government through the RAMFC to present a new table to include all levels of workers in public and private sectors where applicable.  That is, in the private sector, the new wage does not apply to employers with less than 50 workers in their employment”.

THE two labour centres in the country, NLC, and its TUC counterpart, had on

Friday said the three-day warning strike would be total.

NLC in a statement in Abuja, asked Federal government, Lagos and the oil producing states to pay more than N18.000, arguing that they had the capacity to pay above the minimum wage.

TUC at a briefing after its National Executive Council, NEC meeting in Lagos, said all the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, and the private sector would be shut down during the three-day strike.

NLC in a statement by its President, Comrade Abduwaheed Omar, said: “It is a total shut-down of the entire country. The D-Day that we have decided to commence the general nationwide strike for our Minimum Wage is Wednesday, July 20, 2011. It is a Strike to force the Federal, State and Local Governments and Private Companies to pay the National Minimum Wage and the General Wage Review which by the Constitution and by law is our right. The Federal Government wants to pay only a few workers and not majority workers the Minimum Wage.”

The NEC of the NLC has painfully observed that over three months since the New National Wage became Law, no Government whether Federal, State, or local Government has implemented it. Also, no private sector employer has paid the new wages.”

It said although many State governments had promised to pay, “there is no negotiated payment table on which the Minimum Wage is based. Unfortunately, State Governors are allowing their colleagues to hold them to ransom on the implementation of the New National Minimum Wage. Even the Federal Government has also fallen foul of the Minimum Wage Law. The attempted decision by the Federal Government to make the New National Minimum Wage implementation applicable only to workers on Grade Level 01 to 06 in the Federal Service is not acceptable to us. Therefore, both the payment table and the implementation circular presented by the Federal Government are rejected by the Congress.”

According to NLC, it expected that the Federal Government would set a good example as a good employer to pay above this minimum base of N18, 000, saying “This will be in line with the Labour-Federal Government understanding in year 2000, that the Federal Government, Lagos, and oil producing states would pay higher than the minimum wage. This was the reason that the Federal Government, Lagos and oil producing states paid a Minimum Wage of N7, 500 which was higher than the legislated Minimum Wage of N5, 500.”

Lagos appeals state workers not to join strike

Meanwhile, Lagos State Government has urged its workers not to join the planned strike, saying the state is already implementing the minimum wage even above the stipulated amount.

The Head of Service Lagos state, Mr. Adesegun Ogunlewe, made the plea weekend while speaking at the commissioning of the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) staff canteen.

Ogunlewe said: “I want to use these medium to appeal to our workers that even though NLC and TUC are preparing for a three-day warning strike, I want to implore the entire civil servants under Lagos state that they should show appreciation to the state and the local govts”. Read More  -VANGUARD

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