President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba said on Tuesday that Nigerian workers were prepared to defend their position on the issue of the national minimum wage, no matter what it takes.
Wabba spoke just as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila said the legislature will not do anything that will be harmful to the Nigerian worker, assuring that the House will do due diligence on the bill introduced to the House seeking to remove minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list.
Speaking at a meeting with the Speaker and the Leadership of the House Comrade Wabba who led some members of the organized Labour, including the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to the meeting said what the workers are asking for is that the country respects the ILO convention on minimum wage which they are signatory to.
He dismissed the argument of inability to pay a uniform wage as reasons for the demand that the issue of a minimum wage be transferred to the concurrent legislative list, pointing out that the issue of a minimum wage was quite different from uniform wage for workers.
He emphasized that states with the least resources have always been the ones to pay the minimum wage first, stressing that the ability to pay has nothing to do with lack of resources, but lack of priority on the part of the governors.
He said “the fact is that minimum wage has never been given to workers on a platter of gold. Jigawa, Yobe, Borno started implementing the minimum wage first before others; Rivers state did not until we went there to protest. So, it is not about resources, but priority.
“Some of the governors gave us information that they were contacted on this issue and how it was been driven. So, we are working on the basis of information. We are ready to defend our position.
“If we are to start restructuring of wages, I think it should start from the political class. When salaries was reviewed by 50 percent in 2011, that of political office holders was reviewed by 800 percent. So, if it is about the ability to pay, it should start from that stage. Our own is only minimum wage while some are collecting maximum wage.”
Wabba argued that Labour was conscious of the fact that “every member has a right to propose a bill, but we know that we should make laws that are reasonable while taking on board some of those issues involved especially the commitment of Nigeria as a sovereign state that has signed these conventions and I must say that the minimum wage is one of the conventions.
“If we allow states to go and fix their wages, who will fix for the private sector. We are not saying there must a uniform wage for everybody, but just the minimum. That is why Nigerian workers are at a loss and we felt that this is the first place to table our protest because this is the House of the Nigerian people.
“We don’t have any resources to lobby, but we have our mouth, feet and we are in every constituency and therefore we can lobby. We are also aware of the forces behind this bill and we are determined to defend this right that Nigerian workers have earned in the past 40 years”.
The NLC President disclosed that “Minimum wage in America is per hour and it is described as the lowest wage that is to be paid to a worker as mandated by federal law. States can pay more once the minimum is set and presently, the national minimum wage in America which is set by federal law is 7.29 dollars.