National Minimum Wage And Peculiarities Of The Localities (1)

A few weeks ago, the organised labour announced its decision to
call out workers on a nationwide strike to press home the need for
an increase in the national minimum wage which as at today is fixed
at N18,000 under Section 1 of the The National Minimum Wage Act
Cap. N61 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 (As Amended). The
section for the avoidance of doubt reads as follows:

Employer to pay minimum wage

(1) As from the commencement of this Act, it shall be the duty
of every employer (except as provided for under the principal Act
as amended) to pay a wage not less than a national minimum wage of
N18,000.00 per month to every worker under his establishment. The
decision of labour was said to have been based on the refusal of
government to accede to a previous agreement for an upward review
of the minimum wage to the sum of N30,000. In the statement
announcing the strike, the Unions stated as follows:

“It has become imperative at this time that Nigerians recall the
events that led to the last nation-wide strike which forced the
federal government to return to Negotiation table that they had
earlier abandoned. Nigerians should not forget the promises made by
the same Government while pledging to return to the negotiation
table leading to the suspension of the strike action…It is not true
that we proposed N30,000 as the new national minimum wage. It is
also not true that the committee did not agree on a figure during
its last sitting. We accepted N30,000 as a compromise to
demonstrate the willingness of Nigerian workers to make sacrifices
towards nation building…If nothing is responsibly done by the
federal government to meet our demands, on Monday, the 6th day of
November, we shall embark on a nation-wide strike to compel this
government to show more sensitivity to the plight of Nigerians and
the suffering that is decimating our people on daily basis.”

However, following last minutes meetings, the strike was called
off thereby saving Nigerians the hardships that strikes have come
to represent over the years. Regrettably, it appears that things
are far from settled. Hours after the strike was called off,
divergent accounts emerged as to what exactly had been agreed
between labour and government. While the unions stated that the
agreement was for N30,000, some government officials insisted that
the said amount was simply a recommendation which government was
still at liberty to reject. Luckily President Buhari was latter
announced to have agreed to the sum of N30,000. Again just as
Nigerians began to celebrate the victory recorded by Labour, the
governors added another discordant tune when they argued that
payment of the proposed new minimum wage would be practically
impossible and would as a matter of fact, cripple most states which
at the moment find the payment of salaries based on the existing
minimum wage to be a real struggle. Speaking out on the issue, the
Governor of Ebonyi state declared emphatically that 95 per cent of
the states would be unable to pay the proposed minimum wage. He was
reported to have stated that:

“The Federal Government collects 52 per cent of the revenue from
the federation account and when I tried to put the N30,000 figure
to Local Government Areas (LGA) it means they will borrow N1billion
to add to their allocation, in paying salaries.I will definitely
not be a governor to govern such a state and will never preside
over a state that will allocate 100 per cent of its earnings to pay
salaries…There is no governor or political office holder that signs
cheques but civil servants as the country’s leaders and labour are
just putting water inside a basket and praying God to hold it with
this minimum wage issue,…We should determine how much should be
allocated to education, health, infrastructure among others if 100
per cent of earnings are used to pay workers salaries…Many states
are experiencing various problems and cannot pay salaries but the
people condemn their governments over their inability to provide
good roads and other amenities.

Confirming this view, the governor of Ekiti State, a few days
ago, stated that the State would require an additional 2 Billion
Naira per month to be able to pay 30,000 as minimum wage. Without a
doubt, many states have since the drop in oil revenue accruing to
the federation which in turn led to a drop in the allocation to the
states from the Federation account, struggled to pay salaries. Such
was the extent of the problem that a bill was introduced on the
floor of the House of Representatives last year titled; A Bill for
an Act to Prohibit Late Payment, Non-Payment and Under-payment of
Workers’ Wages, Pensions and other Emoluments in Nigeria and
Prescribe Penalties for Violations and other Related Matters. It
was in my estimation, one of the most well intentioned bills
conceived in modern times in Nigeria.

According to its sponsor, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila of Lagos
State, the bill was designed to ensure that every employer of
labour whether private or public pays the wages, salaries, pensions
and all benefits of its workers workers promptly without any delay
weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly as may be agreed by parties
in the contract of employment of the individual employee. That Bill
unfortunately was withdrawn by the sponsor to allow for further
consultation.

However, with the current situation, there is an imminent face
off between labour and the federal government on the one hand and
labour and the state governments on the other hand. While labour is
grappling with the Federal Government to ensure that the decision
of President Buhari to accept N30,000 becomes a reality by an
amendment to the existing provisions of The National Minimum Wage
Act, Labour must contend with the State governments who insist that
they cannot pay the sum of N30,000 as minimum wage. This
development therefore necessitates that all parties involved take
the time to study the issues revolving round what should be the
minimum wage in Nigeria and in my estimation, one of those issues
is whether it is really practicable to have the minimum wage
determined or set only at the national level as obtains in Nigeria.
In other words, questions must be asked as to why the national
minimum wage is set by the federation when in reality economic
realities differ across the states which are required to implement
the said minimum wage. Would it not be better if each state is
allowed, taking into consideration factors peculiar to it, in
determining what it can or should pay as minimum wage?

In stating this I am not unaware of the fact that what The
National Minimum Wage Actprescribes is a minimum below which no
employer can pay and that therefore states can and in some
instances, do pay above the prescribed minimum. However, what I
propose is a system in which the issue of wages is moved from its
current spot on the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent
list enabling state legislatures to also pass laws on wages. The
immediate advantage of this, as I will show next week with examples
from other countries, is that labour will be able to discuss
directly with state governments thereby bringing about a situation
in which wages payable in a locality will reflect the peculiarities
of that locality.

To be continued…

AARE AFE BABALOLA SAN, CON

Related

Health: FG Unveils 2018 NNHS Report
The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health has
unveiled and disseminated the 2018 National Nutrition and Health
Survey (NNHS)/SMART Survey report.

Speaking at the dissemination meeting recently in Abuja, the
Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, said that the Report
being the third after the first and second in 2014 and 2015
respectively was to further demonstrate the Federal Government’s
strong commitment towards strengthening data collection and
utilization which was an essential aspect of the ‘’Saving One
Million Lives Programme for Results’ (SOML-PforR).

The Minister informed that the NNHS was to provide up-to-date
information on the situation of Health and Nutrition as well as
measure the SOML-PforR key indicators and other health related
indicators with particular focus on six key priority indicators
that required immediate action: Skilled birth Attendance,
Immunization/Pent A3, Contraceptive Prevalence Rate, Vitamin A,
PMTCT, Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets (ITNS).

Consequently, Adewole noted that available reports from recent
assessment of the states showed some improvement from the previous
assessments though there were still few challenges which he said
could be resolved through continuous liaising with the National
Programme Management Unit of the SOML-PforR.

The Minister also informed that the Health Ministry had procured
some ‘Ready-to Use Therapeutic Foods’ (RUTF) in partnership with
UNICEF for the treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in six
selected States. 12,000 cartons of the RUTF were handed over to
States with the highest burden of Acute Malnutrition. The States
included: Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Edo, Osun, as well as FCT who
got 5,000 cartons. The Six States were picked from 12 States with
the highest burden of malnutrition selected from the six
geopolitical zones of the country based on their readiness to
participate in the programme.

Commending the SOML-PforR for using statistics to monitor her
programme and decision making, the Statistician General of
Federation, National Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Yemi Kale, noted
that since inception of the survey, the data quality had improved
judging by the data quality score. This, he attributed to adequate
training and use of electronic data tools, which he said eliminated
error.

Speaking on behalf of the Health sector Development Partners,
the Representative of the Country Director, World Bank, Dr.
Benjamin, described the report as a great accomplishment by the
Nigerian Government, in that, every decision based on data ensured
sustainable development in every strata of an economy. He further
advised that the Survey should be conducted annually.

The Country Representative of UNICEF, Mohammed Malinfa, said
that Nutrition was the foundation of life. He therefore appealed to
Federal Ministry of Health to release more funds for the purchase
of the RUTF and other Nutrition commodities. This would go a long
way in building a sustainable human capital which according to him
was the greatest asset of any Nation.

The report was made possible by the successful collaboration of
the Federal Ministry of Health through the ‘Saving One Million
Lives Programme for Results (SOML-PforR), National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), National Population Commission (NPopC) and
UNICEF.