…Oppose Moves to Put Minimum Wage on Concurrent List

…Says It Will Resist Any Moves to Exterminate Nigerian Working Class

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its allies will, on Wednesday, embark on a nationwide protest over moves by the National Assembly to remove the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.

An official invitation sent to labour correspondents by the Congress stated that the mobilisation of members will start from the Unity Fountain Abuja at 7:30 am, and they will move to the National Assembly complex to express their grievances over the move.

President of NLC, Mr Ayuba Wabba, had last week, said the protest would be held in the 36 states Houses of Assembly in reaction to the plan by the House of Representatives to alter the present wage structure, which gave the Federal Government the power to negotiate minimum wage for workers in the country.

Wabba, who reeled out the submissions among members after an emergency National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, vowed that NLC would resist “any attempt to exterminate Nigeria’s working class.”

The Labour leader stated that the workers would not watch “hard-fought rights which are global standards bastardised by opportunistic and narrow – thinking politicians,” adding that the bill is an attempt to undermine Nigeria’s working class.

The House of Representatives had, two weeks ago, debated a bill to remove the powers to negotiate wage matters from the exclusive to the concurrent list, citing the inability of state Governors to pay the N30,000 minimum wage for the move.

But the NLC boss said: “The NEC decided that there will be a national protest action commencing from March 10, 2021, in the Federal Capital Territory and especially to the National Assembly.

“The NEC decided that should the need arise, it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike action, especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.”

Supporting the NLC position, the Joint Action Front (JAF) on Tuesday came out with a clarion call to its affiliate organisations and allies across the country to join forces with organised labour in Wednesday’s nationwide rallies and protests against the ruling class scheme to decentralise legislation on national minimum wage.

The rallies and protests which will hold in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja will see workers marching to the States’ Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly where a letter expressing organised labour’s discontent against the plot would be delivered to the leadership of the legislative arm across the country.

Although the bill is sponsored by a Member of the House of Representatives from Kaduna State, Hon. Garba Muhammad Datti, organised labour felt miffed and strongly believed that that is a mere subterfuge, as both the federal and state governments have overtime pushed the argument for decentralisation of minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.

In addition to working class rage against the attempt to decentralise legislation on minimum wage, which workers have opposed over the years; the NLC, in the NEC communiqué of March 2, 2021, signed by Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President and Mr Ismail Bello, acting general secretary of NLC, stated that tomorrow’s protests are also meant to pressure the political establishment to halt the move to establish State Judicial Councils so as not to irretrievably undermine the nation’s judicial system, as well as to protest what was up to last week a nationwide scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which the NEC described as a consequence of hoarding.

JAF, a coalition of labour and progressive civil society organisations, in a statement Tuesday commended the leadership of organised labour for its promptness to embark on the protests on the basis of these demands.

In the statement signed by Dr Dipo Fashina and Mr Abiodun Aremu, Chairperson and Secretary, respectively; JAF asserted that it is “only a program of action rooted in the philosophy of democratic control and working people’s management of the major sectors of the national economy that can actually guarantee the interest and rights of the Nigerian workers and the poor masses.”

JAF called on NLC and TUC to “draw appropriate lessons from the setback [their] capitulation to government’s policies of deception (deregulation, privatization, credit financing and foreign loan enslavement/mortgage of national assets) has caused the country.”

According to JAF, these policies have now manifested in “the worsening economic situations, sharp corrupt practices and looting of public fund and assets by so-called private investors and elected/appointed executives/legislators, excruciating poverty and mass sufferings, of the people.”

While emphasising the need for the working class to maintain eternal vigilance, JAF further stated that: “It is not enough to protest against the plan to remove minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list, but that organised labour should seriously fight for the full implementation of the current minimum wage, which some states and employers in the private sector are undermining, as well as payment of arrears of salaries and pensions.

“Organised labour needs to ACT beyond the speeches-parley with the executives/legislators to draw a concrete programme of action that can mobilise the working people and the poor masses to mass protests/resistance in order to ensure a spirited struggle against job losses, unemployment, wage cut, attacks on living conditions, lack of electricity/exploitative charges, poor and inadequate funding of public education and health, social welfare neglects, general state of insecurity, etc..

“These demands and the necessity to make Nigeria works for Nigerians on the basis of public control and working people’s management (not private sharks) of the economy are what is germane to the working people and poor masses NOW!” JAF maintained [Their emphasis]

The Proposed Bill

Hon. Garba Muhammad Datti, the sponsor of the bill seeking to devolve the power of prescribing a national minimum wage in the country from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list; proposed the alteration of “…the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended) to, among others, transfer the subject matter of minimum wage prescription from the exclusive legislative list set out under Part I of the Second Schedule to the concurrent legislative list set out under Part II of the Second Schedule and enable State Governments to prescribe reasonable minimum living wage for State and Local Government employees.”

The proposed bill, among other things, specifically reads: “Be it enacted by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as follows:

“1. The Constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (in this Bill referred to as the Principal Act”) is amended in item 34 of the Exclusive List at Part I of the Second Schedule by deleting the words and semi-colon “prescribing a national minimum wage for the federation or any part thereof”.

“2. The Principal Act is amended in the Concurrent Legislative List at Part II of the Second Schedule to the Constitution:

“(i) By inserting the following new paragraph 21: “The National Assembly shall have power to make laws prescribing a reasonable minimum wage for civil servants and public officers in the employment of the Federal Government and Federal Executive bodies, Federal statutory corporations and Federal Administrative agencies”;

“(2) By inserting the following new paragraph 22: “A House of Assembly may make laws for that State prescribing a reasonable minimum wage for civil servants and public officers in the employment of the State Government and State Executive bodies,” identified in the bill to include state statutory corporations, state administrative agencies and local government councils.”