As the Organised Labour returns to negotiation table with the Federal Government next Monday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday in Geneva, vowed to seek immediate salary award to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal on workers. At the ongoing 111th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, NLC noted that salary award was different from the minimum wage negotiation which would come up next year.
Addressing Nigerian journalists at the Conference, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero said, “We had that agreement with them and it is not minimum wage. The agreement we had with them is wage award and it must be understood clearly.
Minimum wage will be due by early next year. And we will review minimum wage statutorily.”
He said that government talking about minimum wage now was reactionary. “Now that they have taken action by removing subsidy without providing anything, that is why they are talking about minimum wage. And they (the federal and state governments) are talking at cross purposes.
It is important that people understand the concept when they use minimum wage wrongly or rightly. We have proposed to them a wage award, which could be implemented immediately without waiting for the statutory period for the minimum wage law or for it to expire.
“What we are going to do is to look at the rate at which this wage award will be, whether it will be N100,000 or N200,000.” Ajaero warned that whatever government came up with in the salary award will not stop the review of minimum wage by early next year, adding that it is good to draw the demarcation.
He said, “When they are making those proposals, they want to increase minimum wage, they want to do this and that, the ABC aspect of it to an average governor in Nigeria apart from few will be the issue of any increase in salary is minimum wage.
There is wage award and there is minimum wage. Even early this year, the federal government to some of their workers, they gave them a kind of wage award of about 40 percent that has nothing to do with minimum wage. But it is to cushion the effects of the suffering effects of COVID-19 and others.”
He explained that the workers are having the effect of the subsidy removal, hence will look at an award that will cushion it. He recalled that Nigeria in the past had had in the 70s, the Udoji award and others, noting that is the purpose but not minimum wage.
