The Senate’s seeming decision to whittle down the powers of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) may lead to a long-drawn battle. The NLC and TUC leaderships have vowed to reject such move.
The Upper Legislative Chamber had last Tuesday unanimously voted that all labour matters would henceforth be handled at the state levels. Although many observers had noted that the move would weaken the NLC and TUC at the national level, the Senate appears to be unmoved by the public outcry.
Addressing a joint press conference yesterday in Abuja, NLC president, Abdulwahed Omar and his TUC counterpart, Bobboi Kaigama, accused the Senate of formulating policies that are anti-people and self-serving. The senators proposed decentralisation of minimum wage against the people of Nigeria eroding the earning powers of vulnerable workers, and at the same time gleefully and overwhelmingly voted for life pension for the leadership of the Senate “Our Senate has become self-serving and anti-people.
Never in the history of this country, not even in the military era, have we witnessed such a charade and travesty on the popular wish of the people as was displayed at the Senate,” Omar and Kaigama stated. The duo also accused the Senate of doing a shoddy job during the public hearing of the Constitution amendment held in Abuja. “We’ve said it that the House carried out a more transparent exercise.
The Senate only invited the elite during their one-day public hearing in Abuja. We were not invited officially. I want to assure you that one of the things we are going to do starting from today is to mobilise and sensitise our people on what those sent to Abuja are doing. “This is a challenge to Nigerians, particularly to Nigerian workers.
This is a task every Nigerian worker must be involved. Should this provision succeed, don’t be surprised that some state governors will wake up one day and peg minimum wages at N5,000. By the Senate’s action, they’re set to further make Nigerian workers poor,” the two labour leaders noted.
Omar and Kaigama said that the Senate’s decision goes against a nation-wide constituency consultation carried out by the House of Representatives where Nigerians had overwhelmingly voted against the removal of the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive to the Concurrent List in the Constitution.
“By their misguided actions, the Senators have not only inadvertently excluded private sector workers from the minimum wage, but grossly violated International Labour Organisation Convention 131, which Nigeria is signatory to,” they argued. Omar and Kaigama claimed that the Senate had given in to “pressures from selfish and self-serving state governors, of whom remnants of them could be found taking refuge in, after looting state coffers and exploiting poor workers.”
The duo said minimum wage fixing has nothing to do with fiscal federalism as taunted by some politicians. They argued that it only serves as a benchmark upon which other layers of government and the private sector could set standards for their employers.
Hinging their last hope on members of the Lower Legislative Chamber to oppose the Senate during their consideration, the labour leaders pleaded with the House of Representatives to align with the people as they’ve always done in the past.
“We call on the House of Representatives as the bastion of our representative governance to side with the people, as they have always done, to ensure that minimum wage remains in the Exclusive List to protect poor working families against vagaries of thoughtless and rabid neo-liberal economic policies.
“We are still banking on the leadership of the House of Representatives. They’ve never disappointed whenever they make such promises. We are very hopeful that the House will throw out this issue. We want to call on the Representatives to be transparent. We are positive that they’ll throw away the decision of the Senate,” they pleaded.
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