Labour demands inflation-proof pay, frequent wage review salary   

• Issues May deadline for negotiations, demands $489 monthly salary
• Seeks mechanism to penalise governors over non-payment of wage
• Runaway inflation, devaluation push average worker to edge
• Monetary authorities tasked with exchange rate stability
 
Identifying the high cost of living as a major burden on workers, the Nigerian labour movement has demanded a minimum wage that considers the fast-paced inflation and a two-year cycle for the review of wage law.
    
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, and his Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, in their joint address at the May Day celebration, said devaluation and inflation are two enemies that render workers’ ‘take-home’ worthless.
    
For the salaries of workers to make sense, the two labour centres stressed the need for the government to tie the review of wages to the inflation movement and peg the tenure of the minimum wage to two years from the present five-year period.
    
Aware that efforts at reining in recalcitrant governors that do not pay minimum wage in the past failed, labour has asked the Federal Government to strengthen monitoring and compliance mechanisms to penalise non-complying state governments.
    
Labour said: “Placed before the government and employers is our demand that the new Act shall have a two-year life with an agreement for automatic adjustment in wages any time inflation exceeds 7.5 per cent. We have also demanded that every employer with up to five workers in his employment shall pay the new minimum wage and have also asked for the strengthening of monitoring and compliance mechanisms to penalize non-complying state governments.”
    
Justifying the N615,000 or $486.94 as the monthly minimum wage floor, labour declared that Nigerian workers deserve to earn a living wage. Labour maintained that the current negotiations for a new wage floor will not be infinitum, saying: “If however, the negotiation of the National Minimum wage is not concluded by the end of May, the Trade Union Movement in Nigeria will no longer guarantee industrial peace in the country.”
    
It stressed that the Nigerian workers have endured for so long and may be unable to continue any longer as they can no longer buy food, pay school fees, or pay house rent while they borrow transport fare to go to work.
   
 “We want to be able to buy rice, beans, bread, pay for housing, clothes, school fees, medicare, and electricity bills among others. Any wage that is below the Living Wage condemns workers to starvation and we are sure that our social partners would not want that,” Labour said.
    
Going memory lane, the National President of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU), Hassan Makolo, who expressed support for the position of the two labour centres, explained that Nigerian workers have seen their wages progressively wane since 1981 when Shehu Shagari introduced the first minimum wage in Nigeria.
    
He charged the monetary authorities to work towards achieving stability in the exchange rate, saying: “No matter the figure that is finally agreed on, if the naira is not stable in the market, the new figure will also be worthless like the N30, 000 that cannot buy half bag of rice for a family of four. The Nigerian money must have value.”
 
Checks by The Guardian showed that in 1981, the minimum wage was N125, which was $204 in dollar term. It was at the prevailing exchange rate of N0.61/$, which was equivalent to N204.92 per month.
    
10 years after, precisely in 1991, when the exchange rate was N105, the minimum wage was initially increased to N5,500 and again to N7,500 the same year by Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
    
There was an 11-year hiatus as the minimum wage staged a comeback in 2011 and was pegged at N18,000. The N30,000 came into effect in 2019, though the law was dated 2018. In 2019, the inflation rate was 11.40 per cent, which was a -0.70 per cent rise from that of 2018.
    
In 2020, inflation moved to 13.25 per cent, which was an addition of 1.85 per cent from the 2019 figure. In 2021, inflation was 16.95 per cent, an upward movement of 3.71 per cent from that of 2020.
    
Indeed, every facet of the economy is expected to be up and running to enable the populace to reduce pressure on the meagre wages workers are paid. In this vein, Labour rued the inability of the government to rehabilitate the ailing refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.
   
“We cannot abandon the other refineries in Warri and Kaduna but should ensure that they start working. It appears there is a deliberate effort to sabotage our domestic refineries to perpetuate their non-operation, enabling a select few to profit from the unethical importation of refined petroleum products at the expense of the economy,” it said.
     
Both NLC and TUC doubted the 40 million litres that the Federal Government claims to be national daily consumption, saying, “In any case, it will be interesting to hear directly from the Federal Government on this and it will also be interesting to hear about those, who are receiving such payments and what quantity of the products they have supplied to Nigerians? We would also want to know who in Nigeria is “drinking” the 40 million litres daily consumption being projected?”
    
The labour movement also stressed its opposition to an increase in electricity tariffs. It said: “We unequivocally declare that Nigerian workers will not tolerate the unilateral increase in electricity tariffs. The statutes clearly outline the process for tariff review, and until that process is adhered to, we will vehemently oppose its implementation. We demand that the Federal Government immediately revoke this illegal decision and adhere to due process as mandated by law.”
    
The union cautioned that the 300 per cent tariff hike will have dire consequences for domestic manufacturers already burdened by earlier increases in petrol prices.
    
It observed that the classification of consumers into bands has proven ineffective, perpetuating darkness for certain segments of Nigeria. The only way out of the logjam that the power sector has become, labour said, lies in reassessing the privatisation process with the aim of reversal.
    
It added: “The current state of affairs in this sector defies economic logic and rationale, despite the billions of dollars lavished in its revival efforts. The constant national grid collapse speaks to the deepening rot in the sector as the original 4,000MW cap on total generation has not been exceeded since after privatisation.”
    
Having demanded that the new Minimum Wage Act should have a two-year life span with an agreement for automatic adjustment in wages any time inflation exceeds 7.5 per cent, organised labour has said the move would encourage the Federal Government to tackle unbridled inflation.
    
Assistant General Secretary of NLC, Chris Onyeka, said the step to demand inflation-determined wages would lead to ensuring inflation has less negative impact on wages.
    
His words: “If we get this idea into the law, the government will be careful to ensure that the measures they take will not increase inflation and reduce the purchasing powers of workers’ income. It is there to protect the income of workers until the next round of negotiation.
   
“We asked for two years, even if it is a negotiation; we will not come down below three years. What the government is doing, before you finish the negotiation the basis upon which you did the last negotiation has become messed up because of the government’s policies. Through meaningful wages for workers, we want to protect the interest and rights of workers.”
     
Labour also called for a one-year moratorium on all forms of taxes, levies, and dues collectible from the informal economy by state and local governments to reflate the ailing economy.