Nigerian Unions Threaten Strike Over Minimum Wage

Thousands gather in Lagos during the general strike over the removal of fuel subsidies. The Nigerian Labor Congress and the Trade Union Congress have called off the strike after the government announced a partial restoration., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

TUC threatens strike over minimum wage, council autonomy

MONDAY, 12 AUGUST 2013 00:00 FROM CHARLES AKPEJI, JALINGO
Nigerian Guardian

WORKERS nationwide would embark on strike should the Federal Government go ahead to implement the suggestions made by the Senate to include minimum wage issue in the exclusive legislative list.

Apart from Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC’s) readiness to bring government activities to a standstill, the decision to deny local government councils autonomy would as well attract the wrath of Labour in all nooks and crannies of the country.

National President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Bobboi Bala Kaigama, who made this known Monday while fielding questions from journalists in Taraba State, expressed surprise on why the issue of minimum wage has continued to drag in spite of the earlier agreements entered into by Labour and the Federal Government.

According to Kaigama, Labour has “two very controversial issues to sort out with the Nigerian Senate and we are prepared to take them head-long in the area of national minimum wage and local government autonomy.”

The TUC boss expressed sadness that the Senate has “decided to transfer issues of national minimum wage to the concurrent legislative list”.

The TUC boss said NLC “insists and we still stand by it that the issues of Labour and minimum wage are supposed to be maintained and kept on the exclusive legislative list; because when you said the federal legislators would legislate on minimum wage that would relate to federal workers, then state legislators would legislate on matters that affect states minimum wage. Who then legislates for the private sector? So, there is a kind of lacuna”

He said: “It is expected that within the country, there should be a certain benchmark below which no employer of labour should go against”, urging the National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, “retain the issue of minimum wage on the exclusive legislative list.”

Should the Senate and the Federal Government fail to tread the path of wisdom, the leadership of both NLC and TUC, Kaigama noted, would not hesitate in mobilising workers to stay back home, adding: “We are ready to mobilise Nigerian workers to face the Senate.”

Kaigama, who is the first northerner that is ascending such exalted position of the organised Labour, advocated dialogue rather than embarking on incessant strikes.

He stated: “This world is all about dialogue. Anybody that is not prepared for dialogue does not want peace. For trade union leaders, strike is the last option and none of the leaders derive pleasure in declaring strikes.”

“In fact, we are pained by the time we declare strikes. We are prepared as intellectuals to sit down and discuss with our employers. We want to see a situation where our employers would see us as partners in progress. Let us discuss issues because some of us are in government. We know as well as those in government do; so let us sit down and listen to our grievances. Let us listen to your constraints in terms of the scarce resources, then we can agree on a meeting point.”

Identifying lack of “honouring subsisting agreements” as the major reason for the persistent strikes, especially between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and government, Kaigama said the need for the Federal Government to fulfill its part of the bargain so as to open wide the gates of universities for students has become paramount.

“Like we are saying, we have problems only when parties don’t respect agreements that are reached and signed. By the time we sign agreements and we begin to implement them, we should not foresee any problem. So this is a product of not honouring a subsisting agreement.”