Strike fever over minimum wage

Organised labour has said this year will be a challenging one for workers. They refer to issues, such as the minimum wage, unemployment and the debt burden, among others that would spark unrest. TOBA AGBOOLA reports.

Minimum Wage

There is anxiety in government circles over Labour’s plan to go on strike. The action is to push the demand for a new minimum wage.

The Federal Government has invited workers’ representatives to a meeting in a move to avert the impending industrial action.

Labour is angry that the Presidency is yet to transmit the New National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly.

Labour has demanded N30, 000 for the least paid worker.

Speaking with The Nation, the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade  Ayuba Wabba, said government’s dilly-dallying on the issue has strained its relationship with Labour and left it with no option other than a major national strike.

The protest, according to the NLC president, is to express anger and total dissatisfaction over the delay by the Federal Government in transmitting, enacting and implementing the new national minimum wage of N30,000.

Wabba said the strike has become the last option for the workers, adding that labour craves the understanding and support of all Nigerians and businesses.

The tripartite committee which comprised representatives of the federal and state government, the organised private sector and the organised labour, had reportedly reached a compromise on N30, 000.

Labour had initially demanded N66,500, Federal Government N24, 500 while state governors proposed N22,500.

Governors under the platform of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) have declared that states were not in financial position to pay.

According to the chairman of NGF, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, no attempt to impose the sum would strangle the states.

The president of TUC, Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Ozo-Eson, who said they might attend, however, said the meeting would not change the labour position on the proposed nationwide protest and strike.

According to Kaigama, TUC would only attend the meeting as a matter of formality.

“Of course when they invite us, we will attend. We do not believe in any technical committee, we’ve gone past that. During the tripartite committee sittings, we set up the technical committee.

‘’If the technical committee they want to set up is on minimum wage, we’ve gone beyond that.”

He maintained that organised labour only suspended its strike on the wage in November last year and would no longer give any notice on its proposed strike.

“The three centres are going to meet any moment from now, we will not give any date, but (we would) just commence the suspended strike,” he said.

But President of ULC, Joe Ajaero said labour has no reason to meet with the minister or Federal Government anymore since President Buhari had made it known in the budget speech that he wanted to set up a technical committee

“How can Ngige send us such an invitation, we’ve made it known to him that we will not be attending the meeting.

“Ngige can meet with his staff and aides. Labour had made it clear to the government that no other submission would be accepted except what was recommended by the tripartite committee.”

Ajaero said the meeting was diversionary and labour would not be distracted.

“The December 31 deadline given to the government to send the bill to the National Assembly has passed; our next step is to meet and harmonise our next move any moment from now,” he said.

NLC General Secretary, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson said Labour will not embark on an industrial action secretly.

According to him, the workers’ union has asked its state councils to hold rallies in city centres beginning from January 8 to sensitise Nigerians on the looming action.

Ozo-Eson said: “We (labour) have approved that the protests should hold in all state capitals and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on January 8, 2019, and mandates all industrial unions and state councils to fully mobilise workers and coordinate with other labour unions for this mother of all protests.

“The excuse that the National Assembly is on break does not hold water as the report of the tripartite committee has been with the President for about two months.

“Was the National Assembly on recess when the report was submitted? Didn’t the House of Representatives adopt a resolution calling on the President to transmit the bill?

“The notice expired on December 31, 2018. When it was given, was the National Assembly on recess?’’



Budget

While reviewing the 2019 budget assumptions of the Federal Government, the organised Labour expressed apprehension about the capacity of the budget to move the economy out of the woods, create jobs and improve the human capacity potential of Nigerians.

Sharing his view with The Nation, the Director-General, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, Mr Timothy Olawale who commended the President for submitting the Budget to the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 19, 2018, however, noted that the foundation on which the budget was built is worrisome.

He said the budget was benchmarked against $60 per barrel of oil at 2.3m litres daily, an exchange rate of N305 to $1, an inflation rate of 9.98 per cent and a GDP growth rate of 3.01 per cent.

This assumption, according to him, negates the reality of oil price volatility, adding that the oil industry experts had noted that the political dynamics of the Middle East might drive down the price of crude.

“True to prediction, a barrel of Crude today sells for $54, $6 less than the benchmarked price and it is yet unknown how the government will increase our present 2.09mbpd crude production to 2.3mbpd in 2019 and with OPEC’s resolution on the cut in oil production, Nigeria’s daily production should now be 1.7mbpd.

“A cursory look at the allocation to some critical sectors raises some germane questions about our readiness as a nation to address certain fundamental questions. Human capital development has been noted as critical to a nation’s development. It is, therefore, worrisome that education was allocated N462.24 billion, which is less than six per cent of the entire budget. This is a far cry from the UNESCO’s benchmark of 26 per cent of the national budget. A healthy nation is a prosperous nation. The N315.62billion, which represents a meagre 4.1 per cent of the budget tends to negate this mantra. This allocation also contrasts to the pledge made by member countries of the African Union (AU) to commit a minimum of 15 per cent of their annual budget to their health sector”.

While proffering a way out of the seeming quagmire, Olawale called for the elimination of resources wastages, perpetrated through the never-ending turnaround maintenance on the old refineries, encouragement of private investor in modular refineries and a total deregulation of the downstream sector.

“As a matter of urgency, we must remove fuel subsidy which has become a conduit pipe for misappropriation of funds. It is not sustainable and we cannot continue to fund inefficiency,” he said.

Olawale also expressed fears at the continuous and increasing debt profile of the nation following the release of the third quarter report of the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the 2019 budget assumptions.

He said: “Figures released by the DMO showed that the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile rose to N15.814trillion in September 2018 from N15.629trillion in June 2018 (1.19 per cent increase). This figure becomes more worrisome when we look at the total public debt stock, comprising the external and domestic debt of the FGN, the 36 states and the FCT hitting the US$73.208billion (N22.38 trillion) recorded in June 2018”.

While discussing the implication of government’s huge borrowing in the domestic market, he stated that: “The size of government borrowing in the domestic financial market also continues to be a major source of concern as this has in no small measure, affected the chances of the real sector to access funding at a reasonable cost.

Proposing a way out, he advised that the federal and state governments, as a matter of urgency, must take deliberate steps aimed at cutting the cost of governance and recurrent expenditure.

He said government also needs to start paying serious attention to workable investment schemes, collaborating strongly with the private sector which is the engine room for economic growth.

The NECA DG concluded that government has to recognise the important role of the private sector in building a robust economy, as oil revenue alone is not enough to place the country on the path of sustainable development. The government must, therefore, make a commitment to facilitate a favourable environment with policies that will attract private investors.



Unemployment

The organised labour has expressed serious concern over the recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which stated that the number of persons unemployed in the country has increased by 3.3million year on year from 17.6million in Q3 2017 to 20.9 million in Q3 2018. They are worried that the unemployment rate is likely to increase in 2019.

The NLC charges the Federal Government to create more jobs to reduce the poverty rate.

Ayuba Wabba, President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called on the Federal Government to ensure sustainable jobs to reduce the rate of poverty in the country.

He said the government must implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve the lives of the people and develop the country.

He said sustainable jobs would only be available if the government created a conducive environment for industries to thrive.

”We cannot be importers and consumers of what we do not produce. There is the need to resuscitate closed factories such as textile and make business environment competitive and attractive,” he said.

The NLC president said the government should also reduce electricity tariff to boost production and make businesses thrive.

Similarly, Dr Mohammed Yinusa, President, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), who spoke on the nation’s poverty index, said government needed more interventions to raise the living standard of the people.

Yinusa commended the government’s pro-poor policies but said government at all levels should pay attention to the development of critical indices of the Human Development Index (HDI).

“The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report is an indication of a country’s quality of life. The report measures national achievement in health, education and income,” he said.

He added that adequate and sustainable attention must be paid to the indices to lift the citizens out of poverty.

Yinusa also urged the government to work towards prioritising the creation of enabling the environment for large, small and medium enterprises.

Source:TheNation

In This Story:#NLC #MohammedYinusa #TimothyOlawale #PeterOzoEson #JoeAjaero #ChrisNgige #AbdulazizYari #BobboiBalaKaigama

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