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Minimum wage: Labour plans 30-day strike, claims plot to decentralize discussions.

By: Adisa Deborah

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has vowed to shut down the country for a month to protest the National Assembly’s intentions to de-regulate the national minimum wage. The NLC, led by President Joe Ajaero, claims that the Federal Government’s decision to remove Section 34 from the Exclusive legislative list will give state governors the authority to set pay levels.

 

The National Assembly and Senate are debating a measure to help Nigerian workers, resulting in a stalemate. The president of the NLC contends that decentralizing salaries is antithetical to equity and equality and that the International Labour Organization regards pay as a national legislation rather than a subnational one. The NLC president warns against any situation where workers choose their salaries, threatening to impose poverty on citizens.

 

Workers in Nigeria are demanding a minimum wage, even if some states pay more than the basic wage. Even while their members were in a meeting with labor, the labor leader advised them not to pay N60,000. He highlighted that the labor movement would not accept “slave wages” and that any attempt to disparage workers within a federation would be met with vehement opposition from the NLC.

 

The governor’s justification for using revenue as the foundation for minimum wage payment is attacked as weak. According to Ajaero, governors ought to use their authority for the state’s prosperity and consider other options before eliminating oil subsidies. Workers in Nigeria do not receive the same compensation across the board.

 

The minimum wage should be moved from the exclusive list to the concurrent legislative list, according to House Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda’s proposal. The parliament is working to decentralize the minimum wage so that individual states are free to determine how much people are been paid. China contends, however, that labor-related issues ought to stay on the exclusive list.

 

Kingsley Chinda, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, has proposed that minimum wage be moved from the exclusive list to the concurrent legislative list before the National Assembly Committees on Constitutional Review. Chinda stated that where federal and state laws conflict federal laws take precedence, while labor issues should be kept separate.