NLC set for battle with governors over minimum wage

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday said that despite the organised labour call for the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to jettison the idea of reducing the 18,000 naira national minimum wage for workers, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, and chairman of NGF ignored the call and maintained that the governors would go ahead with […]

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday said that despite the organised labour call for the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to jettison the idea of reducing the 18,000 naira national minimum wage for workers, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, and chairman of NGF ignored the call and maintained that the governors would go ahead with the national minimum wage-cut or in the alternative embark on massive retrenchment of workers. 
NLC president Ayuba Wabba said that by the governor`s  reaction, congress  is convinced that governor Yari is still holding on to his earlier argument that due to the fall in the price of crude oil at the international market, state governments are no longer in the position to pay the legal minimum wage to their workers.
Wabba said that the decision of the governors, “categorically affirm that the path the governors are headed can only lead to one outcome: a head-on collision with Nigerian workers and Nigerian people.’’
 He therefore called on the ruling APC government and the opposition PDP to call their governors to order as any attempt to renege on the payment of the N18, 000 national minimum wage or mass sack of workers in the states will throw the country into industrial disharmony and chaos.
He warned that the congress has put all its state councils and industrial union affiliates at a “full state of alert” and to mobilize to ensure prompt response to any action of the governors to carry out their threat.
While justifying why the 18,000 naira minimum wage for workers should be sustained by the governors, Wabba said:  “In case Governor Yari and his colleagues, most of whom are fresh in their positions, might not be aware, the principle behind minimum wage is that it is the minimum salary a worker is envisaged to earn to sustain himself or herself and his or her legal or legitimate dependents, over a daily or monthly period. In our context, a worker’s legitimate dependents include the worker’s spouse and four children. In simple arithmetic terms, N18,000 divided by six (6) persons over 30 days amounts to N100 per day per person, or N600 for the six (6) persons per day. This is the amount that is expected to feed six people daily. Then they have to find some amount from the same wage for accommodation, healthcare, transportation, education, and maybe, some change for clothing to cite the basic necessities of daily existence.”
He however commended the governors of Edo, Rivers, Jigawa and Ekiti states, and other progressive governors who have dissociated themselves from the proposed minimum wage reduction.
He recalled that Governor Abdulazeez Yari reportedly told State House Correspondents, Thursday  that the Governors Forum would have to sit down with the labour union with a view to seeing how to review the minimum wage; either by continuing it or downsizing.   According to him, when the National Assembly enacted the law of paying 18,000 minimum wages,  oil was about $118 per barrel, but now oil is $41.  This has led to the recent threat of embarking on industrial action by the labour union.