The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said governors were ignorant of what minimum wage was all about.
In an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing 111th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, NLC General Secretary, Comrade Emma Ugboaja said governors had made a mockery of minimum wage.
While lamenting that they (governors) ought to have been impeached for breaching the minimum wage law, Ugboaja said:
The greatest challenge to wage administration in Nigeria is ignorance of the governors.
‘We have a situation where our laws are violated by people who should uphold them. By global best practices, labour administration is on the exclusive list and the national minimum wage is a priority in more than 187 countries in the world that have a minimum wage for their nationals.
“National minimum wage is a specific wage that an employer can pay his worker as agreed by a tripartite body, comprising government, labour and employers.
”But our governors have made a mockery of what a national minimum wage ought to be in Nigeria by reducing it to their own definition of what they are willing to pay workers.
“Governors have reduced salary payment to privilege. They pay workers for services rendered and not dashing out money. Salary payment ensures societies grow. Therefore, ignorance is the bane of the Nigerian minimum wage implementation.
“What ought to have happened is to carry out an impeachment procedure against such governors because they are violating the constitution and the best sanction for such behaviour is impeachment.
“But those that should carry out the impeachment are also under the control of the governors. At the end of the day, people are pointing their searchlights in the wrong direction.
“Ordinarily, it is the government that ought to have a template and even propose payment that can ensure its citizens survive and are able to meet basic comfort.
”Every worker should be able to put food on the table for his family of four. That minimal comfort should be the standard. It is when deeper issues are discussed that you can go into collective bargaining.
“So, the minimum wage should be the least negotiation that is compulsive because it puts the responsibility on the government to make sure it protects its citizens.
”Minimum wage is protective legislation from government for its citizens. The determination of minimum wage will be simple and less tasking when our leaders appreciate and begin to see the welfare of the citizens as their priority”.
