Labour sheathes the sword, relief for now
MANY Nigerians dreaded another Labour strike. Yet, many others wished that organized Labour would be able to ?do something drastic? to bring the governments at all levels to their knees over the issue of workers? wages. All the ordinary Nigerians carry in their minds is the ?fat salaries and bloated perks? of government functionaries, the same people who would not want living wages for the ordinary Nigerian worker.
These were the pervasive feelings when the week started as the ultimatum given by the two foremost Labour unions and their affiliates drew near without a sign that the minimum wage debacle would be resolved.
The Nigerian Governors? Forum (NGF), which combined workforce is more than the workers of the Federal Government, had been insisting on not paying the minimum wage unless they were given a new revenue formula that would give more money to them and also a removal of oil subsidy so that they would have more money in their coffers.
The National Minimum Wage Bill was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan on March 23 after Labour threatened to go on strike when the National Assembly was foot-dragging.
As the days rolled by and it was obvious that Labour would pull through the strike it declared weeks earlier, Nigerians went into psychological trauma.
As early as Tuesday morning, it was clear that confusion was the order of the day as most Nigerians were in a fix as to how to plan their movements. The industrial sector was in utter confusion. For many people, travelling to their country homes to rest for a few days was on the card while others who had official assignments outside of their stations wanted to know what Wednesday would hold.
But how was the nation brought to the pitiable situation? A journey down memory lane.
The struggle to ensure the minimum wage was moved from the N5,500 that came into being in 2000, began with the setting up of the Justice Alfa Belgore?s committee on the new wage. The committee, which was populated by the tripartite body ? government, employers and Labour ? submitted its report having agreed that N18,000, though not enough to take care of the needs of one family for one month, was a step forward and payable by government and the private sector.
The Sixth National Assembly was prompted by threats of strike into passing the bill before it wound down while President Jonathan acted swiftly by assenting to the bill to the admiration of the Labour movement. With the hope of early implementation date already raised, it soon dawned on Labour that another round of agitation would be needed to tee off the implementation date.
Labour wondered why the Federal Government, which initiated the law was now the same institution now lethargic on the implementation.
Reacting to the delay on July 4, President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwahed Omar, blamed the Federal Government for not showing good example by beginning the implementation.
Omar who spoke while receiving Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu, at the Labour House in Abuja, said the practice was against the established tradition.
Omar observed that in 2004 when the minimum wage was moved from N1,700 to N5,500, the Federal Government did not only implement the new wage on time but it went ahead to move it upward to N7,500 as against the N5,500 contained in the law and even started implementing the wage ahead of the private sector.
He added: ?W expect the Federal Government to have started the payment before now unlike in 2004 when the Federal Government started paying before the private sector and even paid more than what was approved in the minimum wage law?This government has even refused to begin and I can say that the private sector is waiting for the Federal Government to begin the implementation.?
Expectedly, the Minister did not fail to jump in the defence of the Federal Government, explaining that it is already paying its lowest workers N17,000 and therefore sees why a N1,000 differential should pose a problem.
Wogu however offered mixed reaction as to whether government will pay arrears on the minimum wage when it finally takes effect.
He said: ?We should resolve this via dialogue which is in strict compliance with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions. We shouldn?t use blackmail but rather opt for dialogue. Nobody should come to the negotiation table with a fixated mindset. On the arrears, government will pay if it is in the law that arrear should be paid. We should see things from the perspective of the law. I will not hesitate to intervene by speaking with the governors but I don?t think we have gotten to that level just yet.?
Tired of the waiting game and convinced that the only language government will understand is strike declaration, Labour finally, on July 12, stated its intention to begin a three-day warning strike from Wednesday, July 20 till Friday, July 22.
NLC said it was forced to deploy the strike as the last resort saying the Federal Government did not show any sense of urgency in spearheading the payment of the new wage bill that was signed into law by President Jonathan.
Omar, who read the riot act, submitted that Labour was now left without other option than employ the most potent instrument in its armour in its efforts at ensuring speedy implementation of the minimum wage law.
He wondered why the Federal Government which spearheaded the passage of the law will be the first to break the law.
His words: ?Given the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage by the Federal, states and local governments, as well as the private sector, the Labour movement is left with no alternative than to defend the Minimum Wage Law, interest of working people and the fundamental human right of the Nigerian populace to live above poverty line. We also have the historical duty to hold government accountable to the people and ensure that governments at all levels obey the laws of the land. As a result of the above, the Labour movement calls a three-day general strike across the country?The general strike will be against the Federal, states and local governments as well as the private sector.?
Typical of laws, centrifugal and centripetal forces always have different views of them, which are largely shaped by the interest being pursued. While government read the law to mean that no worker shall earn less than N18,000, Labour saw it as twin opportunity of ensuring that no worker earns less than N18,000 as well as seeing other cadres equally reaping the benefits of the upward review in the new salary scale. So, government released a circular that encapsulated its thinking.
Pronto, the NLC rejected the vexed circular that prescribed only workers who are on Grade Levels (GL) 01 to 06 to benefit from the minimum wage. The body argued that the wage increment should have a general applicability irrespective of the grade.
?Even the Federal Government has also fallen foul of the minimum wage law. The attempted decision by the Federal Government to make the new minimum national wage implementation applicable only to workers on GL 01 to 06 in the Federal Service is not acceptable to us. We observed that the national minimum wage has national applicability and affect all workers irrespective of sector or grade level. Therefore, both the payment table and the implementation circular presented by the Federal Government are rejected by the Congress,? Omar stated.
While refraining from particularly eulogizing any state government for declaring its intention to pay the new wage, Labour pointed out that even the figure state governments have declared to pay are not negotiated figures which, in itself, negate the principle of collective bargaining as enshrined in the ILO relevant conventions.
Earlier on June 30, both Omar and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) president, Peter Esele warned governors that were calling for a re-visit of the revenue formula and deregulation of oil prices as avenues to raise the necessary fund for the implementation of the new wage.
Esele and Omar said in a joint statement: ?Any attempt to increase the prices of petrol in the guise of deregulation will be resisted, and organised Labour is willing, ready and capable of leading the Nigeria people on mass resistance against such unprovoked, unpatriotic move. Given the above manifest reluctance or failure of Federal and state governments to implement the minimum wage, which has consequently caused implementation inertia in the private sector, organised Labour under the auspices of NLC and the TUC hereby issue a two-week ultimatum for full implementation of the minimum wage across the country.?
They also have a few words of advice for any state government that may be thinking of coercing its state chapter of NLC or TUC to pay lower figure that such efforts would be vehemently resisted.
Omar described as ?dangerous cacophony? the outburst of some governors against law and order in our country, regarding the status of the Minimum Wage Act 2011.
The statement said: ?The Governors Forum in a show of reckless insensitivity to the plight of the Nigeria people introduced strange elements into the scene, geared at subverting the process. First, the issue of new revenue allocation formula, which requires constitutional amendment has been touted to be condition precedent to implementation of the minimum wage. We find this as laughable and completely unacceptable as the Law is clear and unambiguous. All stakeholders were party to the formulation of the Law and we know of a fact that they can pay the N18,000 minimum wage. Secondly, the sadistic introduction of the oil subsidy argument, is essentially asking government to increase the prices of petroleum products and further impoverish the mass of our people...
?Labour will never succumb to the blackmail of the masses to accept an increase in fuel prices. Any attempt to increase the prices of petrol in guise of deregulation will be resisted, and organised Labour is willing, ready and capable of leading the Nigeria people on mass resistance against such unprovoked, unpatriotic move.
?Our attention has also been drawn to the fact that some state governors are applying the twin evil tools of intimidation and timid compromise on the workers? leadership in their states by threatening mass sack, and high taxation.
?We hereby serve notice that any state government that indulges in this or induces an illicit agreement to pay less than N18,000 will have to contend with a most robust form of resistance ever in the annals of workers solidarity in our country...?
Thus the present agitation for the implementation was initiated. By the time government was ready for another round of negotiations, the strike date was hours away.
Speaking at the opening of a parley between government and Labour on Monday, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Pius Anyim, interpreted the law to favour government.
He explained that the 2011 Federal Budget was predicated on the payment of a minimum of N18,000 to workers who were hitherto earning below the figure. While explaining why government may be unable to effect the payment of all categories of workers due to budgetary constraints, Anyim pleaded with Labour to allow for shift of implementation date to next January.
The Federal Government scribe said the National Assembly has to make provision for the hike in the salaries of workers in the budget and that acting without a recourse to the budgetary provision will be running fowl of the laws guiding government spending.
In his contribution, the Chair of the NGF and governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who appealed to Labour to shelve the strike for the protection of the poor argued that if the strike were allowed to go on, the very poor that Labour was striving to protect would suffer most.
He appealed: ?If it (the strike) goes ahead, it is the poor that will suffer because the rich will be able to afford whatever they need but the same cannot be said of the poor people who are in the majority.?
But these arguments did not seem to make an impression on Esele, who argued that money to pay workers can be found if government was willing to do it.
Esele cited when money had to be sought for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), preparatory to the 2011 elections.
He said: ?We will not wait till January next year for the minimum wage to take effect. If government is willing, it can find ways round this except they are saying that Nigerian workers are not important. When we were preparing for the 2011 general elections, money was found for INEC to prepare for the polls. So, the manner in which INEC got money for the elections should be devised for this...?
But Wogu failed to see the rationale of embarking on a national strike to protest a sectoral issue.
He said: ?We find it extremely difficult to understand why a labour issue in one sector of the economy should be turned into a national strike that will affect other sectors of the economy. The TUC/NLC are respected institutions, we understand, and we are not in doubt of it that the economy of Nigeria is bigger than the public sector. The organised Labour knows that government is an employer in the economy, we, therefore, cannot comprehend the rationale behind this national strike giving the sectoral nature of the issue at stake. If at all organised Labour considered it necessary to deploy strike to achieve its objectives one would want it to limit its action to the erring party rather than plunge the entire economy into crisis.
He thereafter appealed to Labour to ?demonstrate restraints and responsibility in the way they use strike to pursue their objectives.?
And the news convening the suspension of the strike finally came about at 11.45 p.m. of Tuesday night.
But the body in the eyes of the storm, the NLC defended the system it adopted in the negotiation processes.
Most Nigerian cities were in confused state and anxiety on Tuesday as nobody was sure if the strike was going to go ahead or not.
The coast became clear whether the strike would hold or not at about 11.45 Tuesday night when Omar read a seven-point communiqu� that announced the suspension of the strike.
But this in itself was in contravention of the powers bestowed on the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC, which has the prerogative to reverse its earlier resolution. For the simple reason that this highest body of Labour that has the power to reverse the termination of a strike, labour watchers were aghast that a few members of the National Administrative Council (NAC) who were present at the meeting, reversed the order to go on the strike.
But reacting to the insinuation that the leadership of Congress might have progressed in error, the Head of Information of the NLC, Chris Uyot, told The Guardian on Wednesday in Abuja that due process was followed.
He said: ?It is the duty of NEC to do that (reversing the strike order). But the body can delegate its powers if its objectives were met by the negotiating team. In this case, all the demands set out by the NEC were met by the team that negotiated. Besides, the Chairman of the strike Committee, Promise Adewusi was there at the meeting so also was the President, Omar and some high-ranking NLC officials. The NEC would have still met if the objectives set out were not met and therefore needs some level of re-adjustment and re-consideration but in this case, all we asked for were met by government.?
The communiqu� issued that conveyed the agreement read in part: ?The Federal Government agrees to comply with the new Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2011. The Federal Government shall conclude negotiations with Labour on the implementation of the new minimum wage not later than July 31, 2011. Detailed negotiations on the relativity implication(s) of the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage Act, 2011 will be concluded not later than July 31, 2011. The new wages will be implemented with effect from August 1, 2011. The arrears of the new wages with effect from March 23, 2011 will be paid not later than August 31, 2011. No workers shall be victimized in any manner or form as a consequence of the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage. In line with the agreement earlier reached with the Federal Government and state governors, Labour resolves to suspend the three-day warning strike across the country.?
The communiqu� was signed by Anyim, Wogu, Head of Service of the Federation, Prof. Oladapo Afolabi, Omar and Esele.
But on the streets of Abuja, residents voiced their anger about the high level of uncertainty that surrounded the botched strike.
The momentary return of fuel queues boosted by the anxiety hiked transport fares in Abuja on Tuesday, receded on Wednesday as normalcy returned. But most offices were half empty as most workers chose to stay away or either travelled out of town.
In Lagos, the nation?s commercial capital, despite appeals to workers not to join the strike by the state government because the Babatunde Fashola administration had begun the minimum wage implementation since the beginning of the year, there was still anxiety and confusion.
Obi Michael is a civil servant in Abuja, he spoke to The Guardian on his experience.
?What I am going through even now is terrible. I am yet to get out of the suspension of the strike. I wondered why it was suspended in the night when everybody had gone to bed believing there would be a strike. I think Labour and government are not sincere or too insensitive to the plight of the Nigerian people. I think next time, Labour should be firmer. I have not seen this fierceness that characterized (now Edo State governor, Adams) Oshiomhole?s tenure in this present crop of leaders in the Labour movement,? he said.
By last night, Osun and Oyo states workers were still locked in strike over the refusal of their state governments to pay the correct wage.
No doubt, the Labour movement needs to seek a higher moral ground to sway Nigerians next time it calls on workers to participate in a strike.
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