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The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige in his inaugural address at the meeting of the National Labour Advisory Council, NLAC, in Owerri on Tuesday, noted with dismay the series of industrial unrest in the country in the last decade with its attendant negative consequences on sectoral and national productivity levels, including social and economic crisis in the world of work.
According to him, “As you may be aware, no meeting of this Council has been convened since 2014 following the expiration of the tenure of the last Council inaugurated in 2011.
“This gap can be attributed to a lot of factors including but not limited to paucity of funds and other administrative issues that could not be avoided.
“Although the Council has been inactive, the ministry in the spirit of tripartism has ensured and maintained a sound tripartite relationship with the social partners.
“On this note, I therefore wish to inform you that this government is committed to stemming the current negative effects of the global financial and economic crisis on employment by strengthening the machinery of tripartism and social dialogue in the world of work.
“The NLAC has a critical role in promoting and ensuring best practice of Labour Administration in line with international standards. It is hoped that with the passage of the Labour Institutions Bill in the not too distant future, the status of the Council will be enhanced and repositioned to effectively discharge its responsibilities.
“When enacted, the Bill will widen the scope, functions and nomenclature of the existing Council. It is my belief that these functions and responsibilities if well executed will result in better industrial relations practice which is key to national growth and development.”
On the plan by the National Assembly to remove the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List, the Minister said the government was on the side of the labour.
He said,”This is what the Nigerian government stood for by adopting the ILO convention 144 and domesticating it in 1970 from which the National minimum Wage Act was enacted. I am with you 100 percent on the matter but I don’t want you to go on strike because of it.”
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Dr. Yerima Tarfa said that the meeting was part of” government’s strategy of strengthening collaboration between social partners and governments both federal and state in order to achieve appropriate solutions at all levels to ensure lasting industrial harmony, social and economic development as well as national growth. “
He said that Labour Administration in the country was faced with several challenges which include sectoral industrial unrest particularly in the education and health sectors.
In his goodwill message, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba warned against the plan to remove the National Minimum wage from the Legislative List to Concurrent List.
He said, “As we all know, the National Labour Advisory Council just as the National Minimum Wage that is currently but unfortunately under attack by misinformed and mischievous persons, is a global standard established through Convention 144 and Recommendation 152 of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
“Nigeria ratified this convention which is in full force since 3rd May 1994. In demonstration of how important Convention 144 is, more than two thirds of the ILO member states have ratified this Convention.
“Convention 144 is listed as one of the ILO’s governance instruments. Promoting the ratification of Convention 144 is therefore of utmost priority to the ILO. The ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation, adopted unanimously at the International Labour Conference (ILC) in 2008,
identified Convention No. 144 as one of the four most significant
instruments from the viewpoint of governance.
“Partners-in-progress, I must re-echo one major pain that is tormenting the eyes of workers in Nigeria. It is the issue of the National Minimum Wage. As we all know, the national minimum wage is the product of Nigerian workers for the past forty years.
“It is also a collective dividend of the commitment of both government and employers in the private sector. Right before our eyes, this very great milestone in the industrial milieu of our country and worthy product of social partnership is being vandalized by the Pharaoh who never knew Joseph.
“Our eyes have cried. Now, we exepect the head to ache and the nose to bleed.
“The National Minimum Wage has been in operation in Nigeria for the past forty years and has always been mutually reviewed by the social partners. We consider it as an act of great irresponsibility for a state Governor to impugn on this long-standing instrument of the law for narrow and self-conceited objectives.
“As we all know, the National Minimum Wage is implemented in more than 90 per cent of ILO member states. Many of the countries that implement it judiciously, twenty-six in number, including the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany (the biggest economy in Europe) practice federalism, some for more than two hundred years.
“We cannot claim to be more catholic than Pope. In the United States of America, the social partners adopted an hourly national minimum wage of $7.25 preserved in the federal laws of the United States. The different federating states can pay higher than the national minimum of $7.25 but no State pays lower.
“Germany also sets her National Minimum Wage on hourly rate, which currently stands at 9.35 Euro. The regional governments ensure that wages in their domains do not fall lower than the National Minimum Wage benchmark. The Federal Republic of Germany increased its National Minimum Wage from 8.84 Euros (2017 rate) to the current 9.35 Euros in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic outbreak!
“| do not want to sound as if | am singing to the choir, but it is important to reiterate the fact that any move to transfer the national minimum wage as an item from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List would be viewed by labour as an attempt to visit collective genocide on the working people of Nigeria.
“The National Minimum Wage apart from being the outcome of collective negotiation and agreement among the social partners using empirical economic variables, is also a wedge between absolute poverty and survival.”
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