Stories by Moses John
Abuja
The organised Labour has called for the constitution of the tripartite minimum wage negotiation committee that would agree on a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, in his address to mark this year Workers’ Day, said the effect of the economic recession was huge on the working class, hence the need for a living wage.
He said the immediate consequences of the recession on the economy have included crippling budget short-falls, massive devaluations of the naira, shortage of foreign currencies, a steep rise in inflation, job losses, non-regular payment of workers and pension entitlements and significant drop in social spending and capital expenditure; all of which have combined to make life very miserable for the majority of the people.
Speaking further, the union leader said, “we call on government without any further delay to constitute the tripartite minimum wage negotiating committee with a time lag, to submit a new minimum wage for the Nigerian workers.
“In the last 12 months since our last May Day, we have since run into full recession that has wreaked untold havoc on the nation’s economy and brought indescribable pain on the Nigerian citizenry, especially, Nigerian workers and the poor masses of our people.
The on-going recession has affected and provoked all manners of reaction and responses from various sectors of the economy including organised labour.
Comrade Wabba further said the fight against corruption can only be won if workers are paid commensurate wage.
“As we had mentioned in many of our recent public presentations, for the on-going fight against corruption to be won on a sustainable basis, civil servants must be paid appropriate wages.
“We are not making excuses for those engaged in corrupt practices or the corruption pandemic in our system, the truth however is that where the monthly wage of a worker is as low as N18,000.00 under the current economic situation, workers with the least inclination to steal public funds become vulnerable.
Therefore, our campaign for a living wage is one of the best insurance against corruption in the public service”.
On education, the NLC boss said, “Our Education sector has continued to decline as a result of poor funding and crisis caused by government’s penchant for not honouring collective agreements.
“The persistent industrial actions by the unions in the university setting, over the years, is traceable to the characteristic habit of government in reneging on agreements that it freely entered into with the unions”.
