Minimum Wage: We’ll battle states that fail want to pay—Peter Esele

Your talks with government have ended on a bright note. What are we expecting now? The issues with the federal government are not as difficult as with some state governments which are yet to increase anything for their workers. So, we said no matter how marginal it is, it should cut across board. Some states […]

Your talks with government have ended on a bright note. What are we expecting now?

The issues with the federal government are not as difficult as with some state governments which are yet to increase anything for their workers. So, we said no matter how marginal it is, it should cut across board. Some states are paying N13,000 or N15,000. We are hitting seriously at the federal government because we believe the federal government will give the frame which other states will follow.

Now, we have quantum money that was tabled which will be deliberated by the organs of the union—how is this quantum fund going to be distributed? But our expectation is that it is going to be across board, no matter how marginal it is. And that will become our template for us to go to the states and say this is how it was done at the centre and that is how we expect it to be done.

So labour has got all it yearned for?

We got substantially what we wanted. But there was too much wear and tear in the process. We expended too much energy in achieving this. Too much energy because once there is a law, we don’t need to be speaking grammar over laws. All you need do is go ahead and enforce. We have a law. We expect the federal government and governors to respect the law.

So it appears government didn’t truly sign the law for implementation but to buy votes from workers.

I’m beginning to feel that way. Majority of the state governors…I will give you the example of the Benue State governor, [Gabriel] Suswam. Suswam had said before the elections that he had the capacity to pay and that he was going to pay the minimum wage. The same Suswam is now saying that even if workers go on strike for one year, he does not have the money to pay.

When you hear things like that…I think it is not right because a governor is the face of the state. The governor should be of exemplary character and whatever the governor says is supposed to go to bed with him.

When it comes to the federal government, the angle we are not happy with is its aligning…our own findings underground showed that there was so much pressure from the governors on the federal government which made the federal government to backtrack.

Some state governments were watching to see if the implementation would work for only workers under grade levels one to six. Now that it is to cut across board, will you take the battle to the states that are unwilling to pay?

Yes, we are taking the battle to the states that don’t want to pay. We get daily reports from the states. There are some states where negotiations have reached an advanced stage and there are states…take for example…Lagos State has been paying this money since January. They were very proactive. It tells you how responsible a governor should behave. The current Lagos State Head of Service was a member of the panel and he was the one who said let’s leave it at N18,000, it will be paid.

Edo has also done theirs. There may be some teething problems in Edo which makes some unions not happy. I think the House of Assembly was shut down. I heard some staff of the Assembly wanted to benefit from the whole thing.

So, when we get all the reports, we will be able to isolate the states that are ready to pay from those that are not ready to pay. Then we’ll take the battle to those states.

Those in top offices enjoy a lot of perks and the salary doesn’t mean much to them. Why would labour insist the pay cuts across board?

When we say across board, we are not looking at senators and political office holders. Permanent Secretaries are not part of it because they are political office holders. They are earning over a million naira already. The other aspect we’re looking at is whether directors should be part of it.

Another thing to look at is to unify the body. If I tell you that this money is for levels one to six and you know that when we call for strike, it is one to 15 that will be involved, it is not in the spirit of All for One, One for All. So no matter how marginal it is, it has to go round everybody.

When government says one to three, one to four, one to six, those are spanners in the works of labour. They want to divide the movement.

What happens in the private sector including drivers and domestic workers?

The law states that if you employ less than 50 people, you negotiate what to pay. We have to look at the small scale industry—start ups! If you tell a start up to pay N18,000, you don’t want them to grow the business. But once you employ 50 people and above, you must pay N18,000. We will shut down any place that has 50 workers and pays less than N18,000. We have a task force that will go round and ensure that N18,000 is paid in that place.

Have you considered inflation in all these?

Naira of 10 years ago, is it the same value now? Your currency of this year will not be same next year. Inflation will always come—all you look at is the percentage of inflation—but you must have inflation.

Many things drive inflation: what is the monetary policy? What is the fiscal policy? When you have too much money chasing few goods what do you have? They talk about inflation when it comes to the ordinary man. When somebody earns N45 million per quarter, why are they not talking about inflation?

Governors are seeking additional revenue to be able to pay. For instance, they are advocating subsidy removal.

You can always ask for more. But what to ask is what are the mechanisms to ensure that this money is deployed. A lot of us hit the federal government—sometimes I feel we are very hard on the federal government. But how many of us talk about what happens in the states?

I call my union members in the states and tell them, “you don’t stand up to the governors.” We have protested and called strikes against the federal government. I want to see that replicated in the states. Ask state governors questions! A state like Imo plans budget for security this year at N5 billion. The governor has reduced that to N2 billion. Divide that, it is about N250 million a month. Local councils’ issue is not negotiable. Nobody discusses them because you don’t know what they do with the money! If governors are talking about increase in allocation, let them tell us where this revenue will be targeted at.

I’m not fixated when it comes to the issue of deregulation. I happen to be an insider so I know the fraud that is happening in the oil and gas [sector]. But if we deregulate without putting the appropriate mechanisms in place, we will be in trouble.

Let’s look at kerosene. Government says sell kerosene at N50 and the remaining N50 is paid by government. And the same government’s political stooges and friends who have no filling stations will go and collect allocations for kerosene. By the time the allocation gets to the marketer who owns a filling station, who has the pumps, who has to pay workers, will have to think of making his profit, it will go for N200. Those in government will collect the subsidy. So, if you deregulate, how do you deal with these stooges in the system?

Where they should concession, they won’t concession. We said build refineries and give them to core investors. The NNPC we talk about—that’s the cash cow. Never mind what they say, they won’t let NNPC go. We will hear things like NNPC will unbundle…They won’t allow NNPC to be run like a business concern because if you want to do anything in government you go to NNPC—if you want to buy gun for police, go to NNPC. Everything NNPC, why do you run a country like that? So if you want to remove subsidy, where is the money going?

But even with the subsidy, things are not well so why not remove it?

With the subsidy, there is corruption. Without the subsidy what happens? So much money for government—more security vote, more constituency vote. Fuel in Aba [Abia State] has always been deregulated.

Don’t you think labour is complicit in the ghost workers issue?

Government is abdicating its responsibility. It is not labour at all. Labour will give government the means to get rid of ghosts. Have you heard of ghost workers in the private sector?