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Tag: minimum wage

  • Beyond minimum wage

    Beyond minimum wage

    Labour is at it again! Our problem is more fundamental than just salary increase

    Organised labour missed the point on Thursday when the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, Ayuba Wabba, led other labour unionists to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to bare their minds on certain burning national issues, including the bogus pay our lawmakers earn, minimum wage review and sundry other matters. Although the labour leaders were right when they said that the lawmakers themselves constituted drain pipes, considering what they take home, but they failed to call the lawmakers’ pay the proper name it should be called, i.e. corruption, given the steady rise their allocation has been witnessing, from about N23.347billion in 2003 to its current N150billion; and in spite of the downturn in the country’s economy.  And, despite the fact that minimum wage in the country has remained at the paltry N18,000 per month since 2010! Can anything be more callous and ungodly?

    Anyway, I won’t waste too much time on that because a lot has been said on it and we should be awaiting the review of the National Assembly budget that Senator Saraki promised when the issue took the front burner of national discourse a few weeks ago. We will always return to that again in full force if mum continues to be the word from him, in the usual expectation that Nigerians would soon forget the issue.

    My concern today is Labour’s notice to the senate president to the effect that it would soon come with a new National Minimum Wage proposal which the congress wants the senate to quickly approve in view of the country’s present economic realities. The NLC seemingly has a point to want to push for an upward review of the present minimum wage because if salary is expected to take people home, it has since failed in that regard. A time there was when Fela sang that 20 kobo bean cake was too small (akara nko, 20 kobo for one; na janjala e be); these days, I doubt if there is anything like that, not even in the rural areas. Moreover, at the current exchange rate of N242 to the dollar, the average Nigerian worker earns about $75 in a month, just a little more than $2 a day. Pray, what can anyone do with this? Yet, we don’t want people to steal. Yet, we want people to put in their best. Are we not deceiving ourselves?

     I sympathise with Labour on this matter, especially given its unassailable reasons to justify its position. As a matter of fact, too, I do not expect any member of the National Assembly with conscience to raise issues even if Labour eventually comes up with a N50,000 monthly minimum wage proposal for approval. In the first place, this is a figure that workers had been clamouring for all these years. Moreover, that would only amount to N600,000 per annum, which is about N100,000 more than our National Assembly law makers spend on clothes alone per year!

    But, jokes apart, asking for a new minimum wage is not the answer to the question posed by the Nigerian economy. When the present N18,000 was secured in 2010, it was well celebrated. Then, it never occurred to anyone that our National Assembly law makers would get more than double that amount as wardrobe allowance in a month. Then, no one thought the naira would be so devalued that it would now be exchanging at N242 to a US dollar, up from the N140 it was in 2010 when the now moribund N18,000 minimum wage was implemented.

    A quick travel down the memory lane on minimum wage reviews in the country will suffice to buttress my point. By the 2000 National Minimum Wage (Amendment Act), minimum wage was pegged at N7,500 for Federal Government workers (and N5,500 for state government workers). This was raised to N18,000 in 2010. So, within a period of just 10 years, our minimum wage had more than tripled. And this has been the pattern since 1981 when the minimum wage was N125 per month; it rose to N250 as a result of the Minimum Wage Amendment Decree 1990. Ten years later, it had ballooned to N7,500. The implication is that between 1981 and 2015, minimum wage in the country had jumped from N125 to N18,000! I am yet to see any good country with that paradigm.

    For example, when National Minimum Wage was first introduced in Britain in 1999, it was pegged at 3.60 pounds per hour. Between 1999 and now, a period of 16 years, it has increased only by 3.30 pounds per hour. Indeed, when salaries are increased in many other places, it is not as ridiculous as ours and the workers are far better off. Not so in Nigeria. Without doubt, the situation here concerning the astronomical rise in minimum wage over the years tells us that the problem is not about asking for high wage. It is much more fundamental.

    This is what the NLC should be in the vanguard of unravelling (assuming it does not yet know why) and clamouring for its correction. What successive increases in wages has done is to enable the politicians (whether those in military uniform or their civilian counterparts) to keep deceiving Nigerians and giving them the impression that all is well because, as soon as the workers get the salary increase, they jubilate. But when they get to the market a few weeks or months later, they discover that the money has further lost its value. I still remember what I was able to do with my N96 monthly allowance as a youth corps member in 1985. Those on national service now cannot boast of same despite the fact that they earn by far more. Even for the brief period I worked with my School Certificate result, I know the things I was able to do with my salary of about N110 per month. Today’s graduates who are lucky to have jobs are groaning because the wads of naira notes in their pockets can hardly buy anything of substance. My fear is that, at the rate at which we are going, a time will come when we would have to carry money in Ghana-must-go bags to buy an average loaf of bread as is the case in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe which I guess must be brimming with trillionaires!

    Therefore, what Nigerians should be clamouring for is good governance. Without good governance, we are only going to be wasting our time moving in circles, irrespective of the frequency of periodic reviews of minimum wage, or the magnitude. If we had done the needful in this regard, especially in the immediate past, this country would not be where it is today. If we had been alive to our responsibilities as Nigerians, we would not have had the kind of corrupt government that brought our economy to its knees as the Goodluck Jonathan government did, without giving it any serious fight until the general elections.

    Perhaps Labour’s thinking by insisting on new minimum wage all the time is that this would mop up some of the surplus money that public officials steal. If that is the reasoning, we must have seen it has not worked. As a matter of fact, the public officials might grandstand and make negotiations for minimum wage tedious and laborious; they would be more worried the moment they see that the critical segments of the society are clamouring for good governance because that alone is the antidote to the massive looting of our treasury that has become our lot over the decades.

    My fear however is whether Labour itself is not complicit in the situation we find ourselves because if it had been doing what it should do to call the country’s leaders to order, things would not have been this bad. The other problem is the state of the labour union itself; recent revelations on its housing scheme, its transport scheme and NLC’s last election which almost reflected our national elections are enough cause for concern as to whether the congress can provide the desired leadership to take us out of the woods.

  • Ignore PDP lies on minimum wage, Fashola tells Lagosians

    Lagos State government at the weekend refuted claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that it was yet to implement the federal government approved minimum wage structure.

    It said Lagos was, in fact, the first state to implement the wage structure as far back as 2011.

    It urged public servants to disregard posters by PDP’s governorship candidate in the state, Jimi Agbaje that he would implement the national minimum wage and pay leave allowances, if elected.

    A statement by the Special Adviser on Media to the Governor Raji Fashola, Hakeem Bello, explained Lagos settled the issue of minimum wage on Tuesday, February 7, 2011 when it signed an agreement with the 14 approved labour unions in the State Civil Service to pay N18, 780 to the lowest paid workers.

    The agreement, brokered by the then Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Jide Sanwoolu, Bello said, increased the minimum wage of the lowest paid worker by 69.6 percent, which is a 7.6 percent increase over the federal government approved national minimum wage.

    He said apart from commendations from the national leadership of the labour unions then, the chairman of the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) of the approved labour unions, Comrade Henry Akinwunmiju, thanked the state.

    On leave allowance, Bello said the governor recently met with public servants and explained his administration did not stop payment.

    Rather, Fashola, he added, explained the system of annual payment of the allowance changed when the public servants requested to be moved from harmonised salary structure to consolidated salary structure as obtains in the federal civil service.

    “What is happening now is that the worker is getting N10 because we are not saving N1 anymore,” Fashola reportedly said, adding that the workers have since requested to be placed back on harmonised salary structure.

    Fashola also dismissed insinuations that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, was dismissed from the Civil Service.

    Ambode, he countered, retired voluntarily from the public service after 27 years of meritorious service, pointing out that he even wrote him a letter of commendation.

    Urging Lagosians not to be deceived by such lies, the governor pointed out the federal government-led PDP has neglected the state in the last 16 years.

  • N18,000 minimum wage no longer realistic, says NLC president

    THE President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Dr. Ayuba Wabba, has emphasised that the N18,000 minimum wage is no longer realistic, considering the nation’s  economic situation.

    Wabba, who spoke at his maiden news conference in Abuja yesterday, noted that the negative impact of the falling global price of crude oil at the international market on the country’s economy made it imperative to review the minimum wage.

    He said with the devaluation of the Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the purchasing power of the average worker had reduced.

    Wabba added that in the face of dwindling economic fortunes, the labour movement would dialogue with the Federal Government and other employers of labour to protect the workers’ interest.

    He assured Nigerians that despite the challenges associated with the conduct of the elections, the union would remain one indivisible family.

    His leadership, he said, would use direct and indirect means to resolve the disagreement arising from the  the election, stressing that the congress was bigger than any individual or group.

    Dismissing the special delegates’ conference called by some aggrieved members, the NLC president said the only organ of the congress constitutionally empowered to call for a delegates’ conference is the National Executive Council, adding: “That body duly called for a delegates’ conference, which had just elected a new leadership for the congress”.

    His words: “We are going to use both direct and indirect approach to approach the aggrieved parties to reconcile. What I mean is that the present leadership will try and meet them individually and collectively to see reasons beyond personal interest and to look at the organisation as the ultimate.

    “We have had such situations in the past and we have been able to resolve them. I think we must give peace a chance. That is why I said we have already extended a hand of fellowship to everybody and, therefore, we are looking ahead to see how we can resolve the issues.

    “Before the elections were to proceed, the veterans intervened and we sat down in this hall to look at preliminary issues that contestants raised and the issues were addressed.

    “A decision was also made that whatever the outcome, everybody is going to abide by it.

    “We made those commitments before the veterans in this hall on the day of the election and so, I am certain that they will play a significant role. Those are the two areas I think will be important for us to use in reaching out to them. We also have time-tested procedures in resolving conflicts and disputes. We will approach the issues with an open mind so that we can move forward.

    “As far as I am concerned, the only organ that can convene a delegate conference in accordance with the constitution is the National Executive Council. That organ has convened a conference, a National Returning Officer was appointed and the results were declared in public. Everything about the election is on record and so, we must also accept the outcome.

    “I think that the most important thing is to continue to extend our hand of fellowship to them and we stand on the constitutional provision. The first President of NLC was the person that administered the oath of office, which is an indication that they believed in the process because they were there throughout the night, watching the proceeding.

    “We don’t believe there will be two leadership because our believe is that we should be able to unite and look at the issues that affect the workers and not personal interest.

    “Although there has been a lot of challenges, it has been a credible process that all of us can attest to. But for me, the most important thing is how we can address the mounting challenges facing the workers because the interest of workers should be paramount and that should guide our engagements. And from what we have heard from all over the country, our members are also satisfied.”

    Wabba assured subscribers of the NLC housing projects that his leadership would do everything possible to refund their money, adding that the congress was aware that they subscribed to the project because of the involvement of the NLC.

    He added: “You are aware that there are two signatories to the account and one of the signatories is at large. The process of refund has been completed, but he has refused to come and sign. Already, he has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

    “What we want the court to do, having been declared wanted, is to make an order empowering the NLC to refund everybody through the process of e-payment since it was mutually agreed between us and the subscribers. We want the court to issue that order.

    “So, the assurance I want to give is that this is a continuous process and NLC is an institution and once decisions are made, every leader that emerges is obliged to carry out those decisions and instructions. So, we will go ahead and make sure that every worker is refunded.”

  • SSANU warns against removal of minimum wage from exclusive list

    The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has warned  against the removal of the Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative list.

    It gave this warning in response to the just concluded National Conference recommendation that the Minimum Wage should be excluded from the Exclusive Legislative list.

    It also underlined its strong opposition to the scrapping of local governments as the third-tier of government, warning that any attempt to uphold these two recommendations will be met with a nationwide industrial actions.

    SSANU President, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, who addressed a press conference on the decision reached at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), said the Confab should also address other contentious issues in the constitution, including those that have not been adequately taken care of before now.

    Comrade Ugwoke said: “SSANU NEC-in-session commends the Federal Government for convening the National Conference and reiterates its position that the National Conference should address key issues of national unity, equity and justice.

    It should also address and accommodate issues that have been contentious in the constitution, including those that have not been adequately taken care of. ”

    The union advised that the Federal Government should address the recommendations of the conference  thoroughly, adding that  they should be those that will address fundamental issues relevant to the survival of Nigeria as a nation as well as enhance economic growth, peaceful co-existence and national security.

    “SSANU is strongly opposed to the removal of minimum wage from the Exclusive list and the scrapping of local government as the third tier of government. Any attempt to uphold these recommendations will be met with nationwide industrial actions,” Ugwoke said.

  • ‘Why Benue can’t pay teachers minimum wage’

    ‘Why Benue can’t pay teachers minimum wage’

    Primary school teachers in Benue state have been on a prolonged  strike over non-implementation of  the National Minimun Wage. The Special Adviser to Governor Gabriel Suswam on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Solomon Wombo told journalists why Benue State government cannot pay its teachers. Our correspondent, UJA EMMANUEL was there.

    For some time now government has claimed it was carrying out screening of primary school teachers in the state and upon completion, payment would commence. However, there appears to be a problem somewhere as the teachers have again embarked on an indefinite strike. What went wrong?

    Well, I will address the issue of screening first. It’s true that we went out to screen the teachers to be able to establish who and who were genuine teachers and those that were not genuine. We want to thank God that the screening yielded some results, at least we were able to discover that over a thousand people were on the pay roll were not genuinely our teachers and those names have been expunged. Also, we discovered that some people that are due for retirement, that are no longer productive were there and those ones were also expunged from the list. And that helped to reduce the strength of our teachers to just 15, 200 from the well over 16, 000 that we had. So, in that regards, I’d like to say the screening paid off, at least a considerable number of people that are not supposed to be on our pay roll were expunged from the pay roll. The second aspect of what went wrong; well, on our own side, I think nothing went wrong in the sense that the essence of the screening was to establish the number of teachers and pay the minimum wage. And like we said, if you’ve been part of my briefings before, I’ve always met with the press on monthly basis to brief them of happenings here, since August, we started paying salaries based on the resources available to us, there is a minimum wage.

    In fact, we were one of one of the first states to implement 27.5% increment on the salary of teachers in Northern Nigeria. So, this is a precedent that has been set with regards to the welfare of teachers. And above that, the governor willingly, willingly increased the salary of teachers when he came into power. He saw that figures were not too good and that their pay packets couldn’t create any impact, he willingly increased the salary of this people without any agitation from any teacher. So, these are things that indicate good intentions, they are precedents the governor has set, that he is concerned about the welfare of the teachers. So, this background should be able to give everyone an insight into the capability of the governor in terms of handling the welfare of his own people.

    So, what happens is, the local governments which I preside over is responsible for paying teachers and when we finished the screening, we now looked at our resources and how much we could pay. Now, instead of taking exactly what the federal government implemented at the national level which will not be feasible in the local government setting, we decided to do a new minimum wage structure that was in line with the resources that were available to us. Okay? If we are to implement new minimum wage on what the federal government takes, that is, adopting exactly the structure of the federal government, we will need about 2.6 billion to do minimum wage in Benue. And like I always say in my meetings, the allocation to our local governments are not hidden to anybody, they’re not. You can just google FAAC and get all the figures there, you don’t need to go any far. So, these things could be verified. Last month we had 2.8 as the statutory allocation and we had above 400 million as the cat. These are the only sources that are available to our state to utilize. So, if you are to implement what the federal government is paying federal government staff at the local government in Benue, clearly, you will not be able to pay because the money won’t be there. You know how much we get for internal revenue, it’s not a hidden thing, the figures, I publish them. So, the issue of primary school teachers and the strike, they are saying we should harmonise what the state and federal governments are paying. In fact, the NUT chairman said we should adopt what the federal government gives, that is what he said. What we are saying here is, we don’t have enough resources to adopt exactly what the federal government has done, we don’t. And it’s not an issue that is not verifiable. Like we did, we called the management of NUT and we showed them, these are our figures, this is what we have collected overtime. This is what we used it to do; we give the local governments this amount, we give SUBEB this amount, we give pension this amount, we give money for training and supervision this amount. These are statutory. And the total there is still what we arrived at. And so, this is not a gimmick, it is not politics, it’s reality, that what we have cannot pay exactly what the federal government or the state government is paying. We don’t have such money and it’s real. And they have access to our books and we have always shown them to them, that look, this is what we have and what you are demanding for cannot be paid from here. But instead of leaving you at where you were before, we will do a new salary scale based on the resources available to the state. So, this is what went wrong.

    How do you distinguish between what the government is paying and what we know as the minimum wage?

    I’ve said you do not set people’s salary based on their own needs. You set salaries based on the resources you have available to honour this salary obligation. If you set salaries based on the needs of the people that are working for you or what people are doing you could make a mistake. In sharing of the federal allocation, for example, the federal government does not take the same with the state, the state does not take the same with the local government. The state takes about 36 point something per cent, federal government more than 52 per cent while we take only 22. So, there is no way you can set salary the same at all levels. The negotiation was done by the federal government based on the resources of the federal government and not on the resources of the local government. So, if you go to implement what the federal government and the state are implementing, you could be making a mistake because you’ll end up not paying salary anymore because you’ll have to gather your salary, your allocation for two, three months before you’ll be able honour even one month obligation. And I said, if we are to adapt exactly what the state did, or the federal government did, you need nothing less than 2.6 billion to pay the more than 25, 200 teachers that you have in Benue and this is not possible. I said earlier that Benue local governments have the highest staff in the entire north central, we have the highest number of teachers in the entire north central and our resources are not the same.

    So, when we looked at the structure of the state government and the federal and we saw that it would not be practicable here, we invited them, we told them, look at our resources, we cannot just adopt this, we’ll end up not paying salaries at all. So, look at what we have and let’s do something reasonable. And you remember I told you earlier, because of the enhancement of the salary of teachers and other workers in Benue state, our teachers were taking quite reasonable sums of money as salaries, yet we said despite the fact that they are not earning below the minimum wage, let’s increase their salary based on the resources that are available to us. We brought them, we showed them our allocation for this month, I keep repeating, go to the net and check, 2.8 billion statutory, 400 million vat, the federal government clearly said no more argumentation, whatever thing we served is what we distribute. These are things Nigerians are hearing, these are things every Nigerian is aware of, it is not from me, I don’t distribute federal allocation. It is what is given to us here that we use. So, we showed it to them, this is what we had and the only thing we can do is to cut our coat according to the size of our cloth, not according to our own size even because if you have a small piece of cloth and you go and cut it according to your size you’ll end up not wearing that coat at all. So, we have to structure our coat according to our own resources, and we said from level one to six, fine, we can adopt that because the increase is manageable. But when it begins to be unmanageable we will tinker with it a little, the difference it quite a little. But they are saying, okay, we have seen that you have increased our salary, what we are asking you is, adopt what the state and federal governments have done at the local government if not we wont accept. We are telling them and pleading with them that the resources we have cannot accommodate this. This is the point we can’t meet, that is the issue that is in contention.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘States are insincere on minimum wage’

    ‘States are insincere on minimum wage’

    Minimum wage is a thorny issue. Whenever it comes up for debate, emotions run high. The ongoing debate is the decentralisation or otherwise of the minimum wage. The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) is against the idea. Its Director-General, Mr Segun Osinowo, speaks on this and other issues in this interview with TOBA AGBOOLA.

    With less than three months to the end of the year, how will you assess the economy’s performance?

    Each time you go through the newspapers, you will read about government celebrating its achievements and government will back it up with statistics. They will tell you that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased to 6.67 per cent, that the inflation rate is under single digit, and so on. These are laudable statistics from government, but the question is, how has it translated to the welfare and well-being of the citizens? How has it positively affected the life of an average Nigerian? What impact has that made in terms of reduction in the level of poverty? How has it improved health facilities or how has it created new jobs? I think we should challenge government on those parameters. Government is about governance and it translates into welfare of its citizenry.

    The rate of unemployment keeps growing; what is the way out?

    When you meet with government officials at an event, when they mount the podium to speak, they will tell you what they want you to hear. They will tell you in the next one year, government will create one million jobs, two million jobs. When you meet them one year after, they will still repeat what they said one or two years back. That is not the way it should be. The issue of unemployment has not been addressed.

    Today, a huge population of our youths are unemployed. This is, indeed, a scary reality- a ticking time bomb, which, if we fail to defuse as quickly as possible, may erode whatever semblance of social harmony and stability that is left of our polity. We are, of course, not short of initiatives at all fronts: Federal Government, state governments, agencies and ministries, employers’ bodies, United Nations’ (UN) agencies, and so on. However, the outcomes seem to have been very miserable. In terms of quantity and quality of jobs created, we are merely scratching the surface. While the various initiatives are commendable, I believe we need to go back to fundamentals of our economy where big issues such as diversification of the economy, backward and forward integration, policy coherence, policy consistency and cross-sectoral local content policy will be given the pride of place and execution impetus.

    The second issue is what I will call the consciousness of government to be responsible to its mandate. However, I want to commend states such as Lagos and Akwa Ibom.

    For instance in Lagos, thousands of jobs have been created. In the area of refuse clearing on the street, the issue of traffic control, all these do not require any special skill and thousands of jobs have been created. That is a government that is conscious of its responsibilities to the people that voted it to power. Thousands of jobs have been created in Lagos State and I give kudos to the state government for that.

    If government can focus and sustain diversification, forward and backward integration, good governance, the issue of unemployment will be a thing of the past.

    There have been agitations for decentralisation of the minimum wage. What is your take on this?

    The question we should ask ourselves is: What is wrong with the current system of minimum wage? This is what we have been using for long. So, why the agitation now?

    Minimum wage should remain in the exclusive legislative list in order to allow room for employers, whether in the private or public sector, to pay wages above it if they have the ability to do so.

    There are certain things we do in this environment which when exposed to the outside world will make us an object of ridicule.

    The point is that there are other countries that have minimum wage but do not have the kind of problems which we are having. So why are we having problems with our national minimum wage? Is our national minimum wage itself the problem or the process of arriving at it?

    The United States of America (USA) has a national minimum wage and all the states in the USA equally have their own minimum wage. The only difference is that the state cannot legislate on its own minimum wage below that which the federal has legislated. So, for us, we do not see any problem with the current dispensation. I want to say that the states are not being sincere in their disposition and attitude on the issue of the national minimum wage because they had the opportunity to be part of the process to influence the national minimum wage but some of them were absent. They had the opportunity to influence the process and the outcome.

    I think there is deceit on the part of those who are agitating for the decentralisation of the minimum wage or probably some level of ignorance.

    So, we still need the national minimum wage. The only thing is that we should be looking at the least-enabled employer or least enabled entity in determining what that minimum should be and the least able should be part of the process. This explains why in the last committee that was set up to negotiate minimum wage, we had representatives of the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).

    I find it really difficult to understand the premise for the advocacy that the national minimum wage should be taken out of the exclusive list of the Constitution. National minimum wage is national minimum wage and should be as minimum as possible in order to allow room for employers, whether in the private sector or in the public sector, to pay way above it if they have the ability.

    Industrial unrest has become a common feature, with strikes and threats of strikes becoming the order of the day. This is hurting the economy. Why is it so?

    This is greatly affecting both the private and public sectors because it is an everyday occurrence now. The major one happening now is the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), resident doctors. In fact, we are beginning to lost count. The question we should ask ourselves is what is responsible for this unhealthy situation. We have compromised the health of the economy and the productive sector.

    We are undermining the productive potential of our country if we cannot guarantee industrial harmony. Industrial harmony is equivalent to social harmony. This is extremely important for promoting productivity and economic growth. This is because strike simply amounts to loss of productive man hours.

    Government has not demonstrated its responsibility well enough to respect the agreement which it signed with the various unions.

    This is because quite a number of past strikes had to do with the failure of government to honour agreements which it willingly signed. The second issue as to why there is a high incidence of strike in the public sector is the failure of the parties involved to respect the structure which they have agreed upon for engagement.

    I give an example, the current structure of collective bargaining in Nigeria is anchored on industry-wide collective bargaining, and just as we have industrial unions in the private sector, we have sectorial unions in the public sector.

    In the private sector, it is the industrial unions that negotiate with the employers but in the public sector, the employer is the government. The third question is, why are those unions in the public sector not engaging their employers in collective bargaining on a regular basis?

    One reason for that is quite unlike in the private sector where you have procedural rules of engagement that is very clear as to when you are going to negotiate, in most public sector organisations, you do not have rules of engagement. This explains why the workers will just wake up one day and demand say 40 per cent increment in salary from government.

    If the rules were well-structured, they will know that there is a time when they can do that and when that time comes, there will be no reason to engage the government. Thirdly, and this cuts across and not restricted to only the public sector, the structure is not supposed to stand perpetually.

    The structure comes out of the dynamics in your environment and your strategic objectives. The current structure we are operating has been in existence since the 70’s and there have been a lot of changes in our economy. Whether you are talking about the public sector or the private sector, that is where the reform issue comes in.

    I think the time has come for us to really ask this question: Is the current structure we are operating really the best? Is it in line with current realities? Now, I give you an example using the ASUU.

    The national secretariat will want to meet with the Federal Government and negotiate terms and conditions of employment for all universities in Nigeria wherever they are located. I think there is something wrong with that structure.

    We need to tinker with the structure of bargaining that will make ASUU to negotiate on common terms and conditions of employment for all university lecturers with Federal Government.

    This is because the ability of one state to pay is different from the ability of another state to pay. The nature and working environment and values differ from state to state. So we need to give more powers to the federating units to determine how this should be done.

    In the same vein, the power to determine what should be applied in the universities should be in the hands of the unions within the universities while discussing with their real employers which is probably the governing council of say the University of Lagos.

    Until we go back to tinker with that structure, we will be enmeshed in this kind of crisis. Because now ASUU is talking with the Federal Government and whatever they agree upon, ASUU will want state governments that had not been part of that negotiation with the Federal Government to implement.

    Therefore, we expect a tinkering of that structure which will allow the state governments that are going to pay those lecturers to meet with the unions within their state and agree on what will be appropriate.

    Can you enlighten us on what NECA is and your activities in the last one year ?

    The starting point is for us to understand what NECA stands for. NECA is the umbrella organisation of employers in the Organised Private Sector (OPS) of Nigeria. We provide a platform for private sector employers to interact with the government, labour, communities and other relevant institutions in and outside the country for the purpose of promoting harmonious business environment that will engender productivity and prosperity for the benefit of all. We cover social policies and labour policies of government. We analyse and advise. In other words, we are an advocacy group.

    In the last one year, we have been partnering with some of the government’s agencies. For instance, we are in partnership with Industrial Trust Fund (ITF). We partner to promote technical and vocational education.

    Concerning your advocacy role and advice to the government, what has been the response from government?

    Every advocacy has an output which will either be positive or negative. I will say the output is not commensurate with the input. That is, we are not getting enough response. We don’t actually control what become of that engagement. There are times where by the government’s move completely from different direction which we don’t understand. Why should that be so? For instance, government will tell you that the private sector is the engine of the economic growth which adequate attention should be given. Government is not paying enough attention to this. I think government should pay more attention to the sector.

    You said NECA is in partnership with Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). What is it all about?

    Yes, NECA is partnering the ITF to develop skilled middle-level manpower capable of meeting today’s maintenance needs of industry.

    The NECA-ITF Technical Skills Development Project is a joint initiative designed to promote the availability of middle-level manpower with appropriate technical and vocational skills to meet the identified maintenance needs of industries.

    The objective of the project is to promote a public-private sector model in technical and vocational skills training, contribute to capacity building, and prepare participating youths for life-after-school by raising their awareness of entrepreneurship and job creation.

    Also, our partnership with the NSITF is to promote a safe workplace for employees.

    The philosophy behind the initiative is to encourage a safer workplace that would reduce the susceptibility of employees to work.

    We have both agreed to work out modalities that would ensure the successful take-off, implementation and administration of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) signed into law last year by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The Act, which replaced the former Workman Compensation Act, makes provisions for adequate and timely compensation of employees in both public and private sectors of the economic who suffer any form of accidents in their workplaces As I said, the focus of the initiative is to promote a safer workplace for employees in the country.

  • Union to seek review of minimum wage in Lagos

    The Lagos State Joint Negotiating Council is set to hold a meeting with the state government to demand increase in the minimum wage for workers.

    This was made known by the Lagos State Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) Chairman, Comrade Obafemi Oyenubi.

    He said the meeting was part of an agreement by the government and labour to review workers’ salaries every three years.

    The JNC chairman also said the increment was subject to review would be effected as soon as the state internally generated revenue increases, noting that this has improved tremendously.

    ‘’It is based on these facts that the union wrote the state government to demand for a meeting to discuss on the increment,” Comrade Oyenubi said, ading that the time of the meeting is ripe enough so that there would be no excuse by the government not to include the increment in next year’s budget.

    He said there should not be an excuse from the government to renege on the deal.

    The JNC chief said the welfare of workers is on top of the agenda on the council’s list.

    About 15 unions in the state make up the joint negotiating Council.

    Other issues to be raised at the meeting are the step to step increment, leave allowances, promotion, general welfare package of staff, training and retraining of staff and salaries’arrears.