The Nation Newspaper

Tag: N30

  • Senate passes N30,000 minimum wage bill

    Workers won yesterday a major victory in their battle for  N30,000 minimum wage.

    The Senate passed the National Minimum Wage Bill, which  the President is expected to sign into law.

    The approval of N30, 000 contrary to the N27, 000 recommended by the Federal Government in a Bill it sent to the National Assembly in January.

    The lawmakers urged the Federal Government to initiate immediately the review of the revenue sharing formula to ensure seamless implementation of the minimum wage at the state and local government levels.

    Under the current revenue formula, the Federal Government receives 56 per cent from the federation account including four per cent ecology fund, states 24 per cent while 20 per cent go to the 774 local government areas.

    Apart from passage of the bill, the upper chamber also urged the Federal Government to prepare and forward to the National Assembly, a supplementary appropriation Bill to cover the new approval.

    The House of Representatives had earlier passed the Bill shortly before the National Assembly adjourned for the general elections in January.

    Senate’s Deputy Chief Whip Senator Francis Alimikhena, who chaired the Ad-Hoc Committee on National Minimum Wage, presented the report of his committee to the chamber for consideration and adoption.

    In his presentation of the 18-clause report, the Edo North Senator, noted that the N5,000 fine stipulated in clause 3(1) of the Bill against any employer who failed to keep records of employees was increased to N75,000 to ensure compliance.

    He prayed the Senate to approve the N30, 000 minimum wage as recommended by his committee.

    Although no senator opposed the N30, 000 minimum wage, contributors to the report insisted that the subsisting revenue sharing formula should be reviewed to enable states and local governments to pay.

    Senate Minority Leader Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi, in her contribution, noted that without the review of the revenue sharing formula, states and local governments would lack the required financial capacity to pay the new wage.

    She said: “The essence of formulating any policy or passing a bill is to see to its implementation for the required results. If revenue sharing formula is not reviewed in a way that will make the states and local governments to get more funds from the monthly allocations, implementing the new minimum wage may be difficult for them.”

    Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue North East), who also contributed, agreed that the review of the subsisting revenue sharing formula was long overdue.

    He, however, insisted that even without the review, no state could claim lack of financial capacity to pay the N30, 000 new minimum wage going by the amount of money state governors spent to allegedly buy votes during the just concluded elections.

    Gemade said: “Going by the volume of money and enormous amount spent by various state governors to buy votes in the just concluded general elections, no state can claim not to have the financial wherewithal to pay the new minimum wage.

    “If a state through its governor, has billions to buy votes, the same state should through the governor, pay the new N30, 000 minimum wage to her workers.”

    Senate President Bukola Saraki noted that with the passage of the bill, industrial harmony and improved national productivity will be achieved.

    NLC seeks prompt implementation

    THRILLED by the passage of a New National Minimum Wage Bill by the National Assembly, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is seeking the immediate implementation of the bill.

    To Labour, workers would have a good cause to celebrate this year’s edition of the Workers’ Day if the payment takes effect before May 1.

    The Congress commended the Senate for passing the bill, following the footstep of the House of Representatives which had earlier passed it.

    The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had earlier said it would not be able to pay N30, 000 as minimum wage, offering to pay N24, 000 even as President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded N27, 000 to the National Assembly as minimum wage.

    Both chambers of the National Assembly set up special ad hoc committees, headed by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun to conduct public hearing and submit their reports for consideration.

    However, the House of Representatives immediately passed the bill into law before embarking on break for the 2019 general elections, while the Senate passed the bill at its sitting yesterday.

    Acting NLC President Najeem Yasin said though the bill has been passed by both chambers, the battle for the minimum wage was not yet over, saying workers would not rest until the bill is signed and implemented.

    He said: “We commend the senate for the quick passage. But it is not yet over because we want them to make sure that the process gets to the logical conclusion and for the quick implementation of that N30, 000.  Nigerian workers are happy and commend them.

    “We stand by the N75, 000 punishment for employers who fail to implement the law which has been passed. We have been fighting for this N30, 000 for a long time and the governors have been opposed to it. But now, it has been passed. Nigerian workers are now looking forward to the signing of the bill into law.

    “We want them to start implementing it before the May Day celebration so that Nigerian workers can have good reasons to celebrate.”

  • NLC’s claims on governors’ unwilling to pay N30,000 minimum wage mischievous, says NGF

    THE Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has described as mischievous and misleading, the claims that the governors are not willing to pay the N30,000 minimum wage.

    NGF Head, Media and Public Affairs Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo stated this in a reaction to a report quoting the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Secretary General Peter Ozo-Eson on the minimum wage.

    The statement said the NLC’s demand for governors’ probe on alleged diversion of bailout funds was a needless attempt by labour leadership to steer the public away from the promise by President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute another committee to review the minimum wage gridlock.

    It warned NLC not to destroy the existing conviviality that is already building-up between workers and their governors.

    The NGF stressed that the N22,500 proposed by the governors was arrived at after extensive deliberations among the 36 governors, considering the country’s economic situation and the states’ other obligations to the majority of the people of their various domains.

    The forum claimed that the governors were guided by the report of the tripartite committee set up by the President.

    The statement reads: “Governors have collectively made it abundantly clear that they would have been happy to pay workers the N30,000, but times are hard and because of financial constraints and other limitations, many states cannot afford it for now.

    “The NGF had offered workers a token increment to the sum of N22,500 from the current N18,000 after the submission of the report of the tripartite committee set up by the President and headed by a retired Head of Service, Ms. Amma Pepple, on October 6th.

    “The N22,500 was arrived at, after extensive deliberations among the 36 governors, outlining their financial capacities and liquidity, considering the economic situation of the country and the states’ other obligations to the majority of the people of their various domains.

    “Governors also emphasised that N22,500 is a “baseline threshold”, meaning that any governor, who can pay more than N22,500 is, therefore, free to go ahead and do so.

    “Let it be known that governors have met the President twice on this matter and presented their books to buttress their point. First, a batch of state governors, led by the NGF Chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar of Zamfara State, in company of Governors Ambode of Lagos, Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) attended a closed door meeting with the President, where the financial standing of six states, one each from all the geo-political regions in the country, were shown to the President, after which, on Mr. President’s request, all the states forwarded their books, their revenues, both internally generated and their earnings from the Federation Account along with their other sources of revenue for examination. The president appears satisfied with the governors’ position, thus the decision to set up a new committee.”

    The NGF added: “It is important to add that, there has never been a time in this country, when states have embarked on a more aggressive revenue drive than they are doing today. And this is without exception or prejudice to any state.

    “To put the records straight, governors are not under any obligation, by law, to show their books to the NLC. But they have, in their pursuit of the understanding of the union, done so, not once, but several times over, with a view to letting NLC know that what they are asking for is neither realistic nor sustainable. Yet, NLC remains adamant that its will must be done, or the heavens will fall.

    “The President, at his last meeting with governors on December 15, 2018, admonished them (governors) to expect harsher economic tides from New Year’s, thus validating governors’ fears that even those states that had hitherto looked comfortable financially, may in the course of the new year, falter.

    “Moreover, since that last meeting, of the middle of December, between the governors and Mr. President, the economists of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat have been working closely with the relevant departments in all the states of the federation and looking into other ways of collating financial standing of states that will help the President in ameliorating the situation.

    “Already, revenue to states have dropped drastically while demands by competing needs keep rising astronomically. Last year alone, revenue to states dropped from N800 billion when the tripartite committee was appointed (November 2017) to between N500 billion and N600 billion by the time Ms. Amma Pepple submitted its report in October 2018.

    “Moreover, state governors are making concerted efforts to improve education, health and infrastructure and for this, would not therefore, dedicate their states’ entire resources to workers’ salaries alone, knowing that workers constitute less than five per cent of the nation’s population. In that regard, governors emphatically announced, collectively, that no state would devote more than 50 per cent of its revenue to salaries.

    “To, therefore, insist that states must oblige the NLC its demands, regardless of the economic gloom that stares the nation in the face, is most unpatriotic and a deliberate attempt to hold the nation, especially the President, to ransom, this being an election year…

    “This is not the time for the NLC to destroy the existing conviviality that is already building-up between workers and their governors, especially in those states of the federation where governors are stepping up to the plate with the right decisions.”

  • Labour: we’ll begin strike on Nov 6 unless N30,000 minimum wage is adopted

    THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has served a formal notice to the Federal Government that its members will begin an indefinite national strike from November 6, except the payment of N30,000 as new national minimum wage is adopted.

    It accused Minister of Labour Senator Chris Ngige of feeding the public with half-truth about the work of the tripartite committee on the new National Minimum Wage and misleading the government into gagging workers and forcing them to become slaves, rather than workers.

    Rising from its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the NLC said workers would not be intimidated by any threat of “no work, no pay”.

    It noted that the government was trying to return the country to the dark days of the Abacha military regime by attempting to force workers not to protest inhuman treatment through nonpayment of salaries.

    The Congress accused the Minister of Labour and Employment of trying to twist the truth by misinforming the public that the meeting of October 4 and 5, 2018 was inconclusive as the members of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage did not agree on a figure.

    The NEC, which is the highest decision-making organ of the NLC, said the recent antics of Minister of Labour and Employment was anti-labour and anti-workers, especially with regards to the minister’s utterances, which it deemed as an act of bad faith intended to scuttle the work of the committee on the new national minimum wage.

    It rejected and condemned the minister’s claims in the media that negotiations were still ongoing on the issue of a new National Minimum Wage, which implementation is already long overdue.

    According to the NLC NEC, the latest posture by government was calculated to cow workers into submission as well as stop labour from protesting government’s foot dragging on the new national minimum wage and an assault on workers with the “no work, no pay” clause in the Trade Disputes Act.

    The communique signed by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba and General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, argued that fixing of tenure for workers holding union executive positions in contravention of the provisions of ILO Convention 87; and the prohibition or exclusion of non-card carrying members of trade unions from leading or being part of negotiation delegations of trade unions were reminiscent of the Abacha military era.

    It resolved to “organise a national day of mobilisation and sensitisation rallies for workers to show their outrage and mourning in the 36 states of the federation and FCT on Tuesday.

    The day, according to NLC NEC, will also be used to educate and sensitise Nigerians on the plight of workers and pensioners, the insensitivity and duplicity of government on labour issues, and to protest the proposed obnoxious policies of government against organised labour.

  • Man jailed for N30,000 fraud

    Man jailed for N30,000 fraud

    An Igbosere Magistrates’ Court has sentenced a man, Valentine Thomas, to one year imprisonment for defrauding an Uber taxi driver of N30,000.

    Magistrate A. A. Adetunji, however, gave the convict an option of returning the cash and spending nine months in prison.

    Thomas, 28, was arraigned last November 30 on a single count of theft contrary to Section 313 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    He pleaded not guilty and was convicted after seven months of trial.

    Prosecuting Sergeant Friday Mameh told the court that Thomas, last November 28 at about 1:17pm, hired an Uber cab at Lekki to take him around Eti-Osa Local Government Area.

    They agreed on a fee of N30,000 for the ride between 1:17pm and midnight.

    Thomas, Mameh said, told the driver, Adeboye Mayowa, that he was a South Africa returnee and was looking for a hotel to lodge.

    On the way, he ordered the driver to stop at a hotel at Oniru and ordered for food at the restaurant.

    He also invited two girls to join him, but failed to pay for the meals.

    According to Mameh, when Mayowa demanded his fare, Thomas said he would pay as soon as he converted the $500 in his possession to naira.

    But the driver insisted on his money and drove him to Eko Hotel, on Victoria Island so he could convert the dollars.

    When Thomas failed to do so, the driver sensed that there were no dollars and reported the matter at the Maroko Police Station, Victoria Island.

    Mameh said the police found that Thomas, from Benue State, had no money on him and could not prove that he ever visited South Africa.