Minimum Review: FG frustrating and delaying process – Wabba

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba speaks on the delay in concluding the national minimum wage review process, and warns against the federal government frustrating the process.
MOSES JOHN presents the details.
Minimum wage negotiation update You will recall that the committee was inaugurated in November 2017, but started its assignment in March this year due to some logistic reasons.
And at its inaugural meeting, all the parties produced a work plan which spelled out the modus operandi and the duration of the work of the committee.
By the work plan, we were supposed to end and submit our report by the 21st of August.
Unfortunately, as you are aware, that day fell on a public holiday and therefore, it was agreed that the fourth and fifth should be used to complete the assignment of the committee and all members were committed to this process of completing the work of the committee and also forwarding it to the appropriate quarter.
At that meeting, we were able to complete the entire report.
But just before we concluded, the Minister of Labour who spoke at that occasion as the representative of the federal government said they needed to go and consult before they arrive at a figure.
We thought this committee was put in place November, and all through, everybody is aware that all the stakeholders needed to tidy up whatever consultations or process they wanted to do and make sure that we were able to work within that time line.
So, clearly speaking, they were not prepared to actually produce a figure between fourth and fifth at the meeting we had.
But our report has been completed, it is just to agree on a particular figure.
However, all the parameters to be used to agree on a figure also are clearly there.
I can say clearly that states have sent in memoranda.
21 states sent in memoranda where about 12 also quoted figure, NECA has submitted figure, Organised Labour has submitted a figure, so what we are waiting, and what we thought is that we should be able to complete the assignment yesterday.
But with the new development, they said they needed to consult and we thought also that it has not been a fair process if at this point somebody is saying he has not consulted and that they needed to consult.
We will, on our part, as Organised Labour meet formally and will issue a formal statement and also try to see how we can make sure that the interest of Nigerian workers is not in any way undermined.
So this is where we are and I think, it is important we put the fact and figures before our members.
We will do that formally because we have already called for our organs meeting where we would brief them because it is in public domain; where both government and Labour agreed.
When they were saying November, we said no, and everybody agreed that the timeline must be respected.
We are committed to respecting the timeline, and that is why we left everything we were doing to do the needful to be able to do a neat job.
I can say that a good job has been done, all the parameters you can think of have been considered and the report is ready.
The only issue is that issue which I mentioned, which we think at this point in time, is not something that Nigerian workers will be palatable with such news.
But that is the position they took, and we said we would appropriately communicate to our people and also make sure we are able to agree on our next line of action.
Already, we have scheduled those meetings and at the right time, we will inform you appropriately because it affects all Nigerian workers, both in public and private sectors.
That is why it is essential and very important.
Figures quoted Every state quoted figures and every state was given the opportunity to make presentation.
A letter was written to every state by the secretariat to send in their memo, making their inputs and 21 of them actually made inputs.
You are aware of the figures quoted by Organised Labour.
We have enough data to do justice to the work and we have actually done justice to the work.
I am telling you that this is what has happened.
Stakeholders’ involvement in the process There was the issue of public hearing which took place in all the geo-political zones and Abuja, and we got enough materials and the process has been very open and all the information are contained in the report.
But a particular figure which should be agreed upon was not, but we have actually started agreeing on that.
There were proposals and counter proposals before this information came directly from the Minister of Labour that there is a committee of the federal government led by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, which was supposed to have sent in their input, but did not.
Timeline There was enough time for everybody to make input.
Now that the report should have been consummated, some people are saying they needed time for consultations.
We thought that should not have been the situation because of the importance of the issue to Nigerian workers, and the workers can also not continue to be patient.
We are already about two years behind schedule.
The 2011 minimum wage collective agreement by all parties agreed that a review will be due after five years and we all know when that period is due.
We started behind schedule and I must say that the committee did a lot of work to reach where we are presently.
All parties have been very committed and despite all distractions, we have been able to drive the process.
They are at liberty to quote figures and we are at liberty to also quote what we think is right.
It is a process of dialogue and consultations and at the end of the day, we have to agree on something.
We are satisfied that they came up with something they want us to consider.
What is important is that they are committed to reviewing the minimum wage.
That is why they came up with the options.
Figures by States Every state should answer their own name and the workers of that state will engage them.
I don’t want us to hide under the omnibus name.
Every governor must first answer their names.
What we have agreed is that if a governor is not willing to comply, let him go back to his own state, call the workers and tell them he will not pay the minimum wage and we will take it from there.
Let the minister not speak for the governors.
He should speak on behalf of the federal government.
Even the last one we had, the governors’ forum never made any submission.
It was individual states that sent in memo because what is recognized by law is individual states.
Non implementation of N18,000 If we do the needful and prioritise our needs, states will be able to pay.
As we speak, there are states that are doing extremely well in the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage.
The issue is not about resources, but management of those resources.