By Haruna Salami
President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, Wednesday led thousands of workers to the National Assembly to protest a proposed bill that seeks to remove the National Minimum Wage from the exclusive legislative list to concurrent list of the 1999 constitution.
The Bill to that effect passed second reading at the plenary session in the House of Representatives last week, implying that each of the three tiers of government would negotiate the wage they can separately pay their employees if the proposal is finally passed and assented to by the president.
The Sponsor of the Bill, Hon. Garba Datti, while presenting its general principles argued that it was intended to amongst other things, transfer the subject matter of minimum wage prescription from the exclusive legislative list as set out under Part II of the Second Schedule of 1999, Constitution.
He noted that the move would cure the repeated bickering between organized labour and the government.
However, NLC President, Wabba, said Nigeran workers all over the country were protesting the introduction of “toxic bill” to the House of Representatives by the member from Sabon-Gari, in Kaduna state.
“The bill came to us as a surprise because he trying to reverse the gains that Nigerian workers made in the last 40 years.
“The issue of the minimum wage is not of Nigerian standard. It is an issue that is backed by two International Labour Organisation, ILO Conventions, Convetion 26 and Convention 131. Nigeria ratified Convention 26 as far back as June,1961 under a democratic government and inserted minimum wage in our Constitution under the exclusive list.
“The issue of minimum wage is about protecting the most vulnerable workers from exploitation and making sure that employers and governments don’t play slave wages.
“What they want to do, once you remove that bar of having a national ceiling of what cannot be paid as a wage, then they will go and pay slave wage. They are looking for avenue to continue to make money without looking at the social consequences of their actions.
“If they want to address paucity of funds, they should go back to their constituents and collect their salaries, because as at today, all political office holders in Nigeria, from councillor, member state house of assembly to the national level, collect a unified salary; ability to pay does not arise, Wabba said.
