Minimum Wage: ULC kicks as National Council of State propose N27,000

The United Labour Congress (ULC) has counseled President Muhammadu
Buhari not to renege on his resolve to transmit the N30, 000 figure
agreed by the Tripartite Committee, citing such move as an attempt to
jettison the collective will of Nigerian workers and the trade union
movement.

ULC raised a poser about the alleged National Council of State’s
unilateral proposal of N27,000 as the new National Minimum Wage.

According to ULC President Comrade Joe Ajearo in a statement issued
today the National Council States lacks the powers to override the
decision of the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee, describing
it as illegal.

“We urge the President to disregard the pronouncement of the National
Council of State as it ridicules the statutes and principles governing
the nation. The only honourable path he should tread is to transmit
the N30,000 figure as agreed by the Tripartite Committee and even the
President on the day of submission of the Committee’s report. We will
not accept the use of any cover of state to jettison the collective
will of Nigerian workers and the trade union movement.

“The emerging news of the unfortunate decision of the federal
government through the National Council of State to unilaterally
propose N27,000 as the new National Minimum Wage is shocking and goes
against the grain of all known traditions and practices of Industrial
Relations especially as it concerns National Minimum Wage setting
framework..

“ULC rising from its just concluded Central Working Committee (CWC)
meeting today in Lagos rejects in its entirety the proposed N27,000
which is contrary to the N30,000 agreed by the National Minimum Wage
Tripartite Committee and which has since been submitted to the
President.

“We state that the National Council of State in a National Minimum
Wage setting mechanism is an aberration. It is also important that we
make it clear that the National Council of State does not have powers
to approve, confirm, affirm or accept any figure as the new National
Minimum Wage. What they have pretended to have done is therefore
without any force of Law, standards or other known practices of
Industrial Relations the world over.

“It is a mockery of the essence and principle behind the setting of a
National Minimum Wage to attempt to segregate it between Federal
Workers and State Workers. We want to state that workers are workers
everywhere whether at the Federal Level or at the State Level. They
all have the same challenges; go to the same market, same schools and
much more they suffer the same fate. You cannot therefore pay them
differently.

“Government’s attempt at this dichotomy is an effort at segregation
and apartheid in nature. It is an attempt to put a sword within the
trade union movement and to further the marginalization of Private
sector workers in Nigeria thus seek to weaken the trade union movement
in the country.

“ULC saw this coming earlier in January and that was why we distanced
ourselves. We will however in the next few days in consultation with
other Labour Centres if they are still in the struggle for a just
national minimum wage take steps to ensure that the interests of
Nigerian workers as it concerns the National Minimum Wage are
protected.

“We urge the President to disregard the pronouncement of the National
Council of State as it ridicules the statutes and principles governing
the nation. The only honourable path he should tread is to transmit
the N30,000 figure as agreed by the Tripartite Committee and even the
President on the day of submission of the Committee’s report. We will
not accept the use of any cover of state to jettison the collective
will of Nigerian workers and the trade union movement.

“We remind the President that he promised Nigerian workers that he
was going to transmit the N30,000 as agreed by the Tripartite
Committee to the National Assembly for passage into Law.
“ He should not allow himself to be seen as a President who does not
keep to his words. We hold him to that agreement and there is no other
thing that would be acceptable to Nigerian workers except the N30,000
arrived at through the Tripartite process”, Ajearo said.

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