NLC: We’ll shut economy for a month if n’assembly passes bill to decentralise minimum wage

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it will shut down the economy for one month if the national assembly decentralises the minimum wage.

Joe Ajaero, NLC president, spoke on Tuesday during the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) annual general meeting in Lagos.

He said organised labour will resist attempts to move the minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.

“As we are here, a joint committee of the senate, house of representatives, and the judiciary are meeting,” he said. 

“They have decided to remove section 34 from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list so that the state governors can determine what to pay you and so that there will be no minimum wage again.

“The very moment the house of representatives and the senate come up with such a law that will not benefit Nigerian workers, they will be their drivers and gatemen, and there will be no movement for one month.

“We cannot accept any situation where the governors and the national assembly members will foist a slave wage on workers and force poverty on the citizens. Organised labour will not accept it.

“We don’t have a situation where people determine their wages. That amounts to some level of illegality. In the constitution, there is a provision for equal work for equal pay.

“If we go into job analysis and job evaluation, we may discover that a clerk here may be doing the same work as the clerk in Sokoto.

“The so-called decentralisation of wages to pay somebody here less than what the other person is receiving is against the concept of equity and equality before the law.

“Every country has their minimum wage and some states are paying higher than the basic minimum wage, and that is the position of the law anywhere.

“We have put our members on notice that if these people succeed in coming up with such unpatriotic and obnoxious law — this democracy they are playing with, we have enough in this country in terms of hardship.

“Some people, based on their privileged positions, want to inflict more injuries on the workers and citizens of this country and that will not be accepted.

“There is no governor that is not receiving the same thing nationwide, they are not receiving according to their revenue in their states but they want that of the workers to be so.

“So, the issue of using revenue as a basis for the payment of minimum wage is a lame one. If any governor is making that argument, then he doesn’t know what governance is all about.”

The national assembly is currently in the process of amending the 1999 constitution and has received several proposals, including one to move the minimum wage from the exclusive list to the concurrent list.

In 2021, organised labour staged a nationwide protest against the bill.

The bill did not scale through in the 9th assembly.

President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to meet with organised labour on Thursday for further discussions on the new minimum wage.