Nigeria Labour Congress demands N25, 000 minimum pension

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has demanded a review of pension to a minimum of N25,000, per month, in Sokoto State, as against the four thousand naira being paid for the past twelve years.

The chairman of the congress in the state, Mr Aminu Umar, made this demand in Sokoto on Monday at the 2017 May Day celebration. Umar also called for the implementation of the government circular of December 2014, on the payment of gratuity and pension to staff and medical workers in the Local Government service, as their counterparts in the state service.

The chairman, however, lauded the State Government for the payment of arrears of gratuities of more than four billion to retired civil servants at the State and Local Government service. He also noted the regular payment of salary and pension “at a time when some workers in some states are being owed arrears of salary and pension”.

“Regular training and retraining of civil servants, priority given to education, agriculture and commerce. “Increased food production and security, creation of job opportunities, as well as increased revenue generation, among others”. Umar promised that workers in the state would continue to be hardworking, honest and dedicated to duty, in order to move the state forward.

In a message, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, promised to continue to accord priority to the welfare of civil servants, as well as the generality of the citizens. Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Bashir Garba, the governor promised to motivate and encourage the civil servants to become robust, disciplined and productive.

Nigerian workers demand N65,000 minimum salary

The call for pay rise and improved working conditions resonated across the 36 states yesterday as workers marked the 2017 May Day.

From Lagos to Maiduguri, Kebbi to Akwa Ibom, Ibadan to Minna and Osun to Sokoto, it was the same call– better welfare package.

The umbrella bodies – Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) – asked employers for a review of minimum monthly salary from N18, 000 to N65, 000.

Besides, they asked for N25, 000 minimum monthly pension for retirees and special pay package for workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

In Abuja, the workers protested the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Eagle Square.

The protest marred the celebration, preventing the presentation of the President’s goodwill message.
In the message, the President promised that the report of the Main Government/Labour Committee on Mimimum wage and palliatives will be fully implemented.

Trouble started when the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour & Employment, Mrs. Biola Bawa, was invited to read the address of the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige.

The invitation was rejected by the workers with a thunderous ‘No’. They said Ngige must read his own address.

The drama continued for a while with the workers refusing appeal from NLC and TUC presidents Ayuba Wabba and Bobboi Kaigama that the workers allow Mrs. Bawa to address the rally.
Attempts by former Edo State governor and former NLC President Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to calm down the workers who took over the podium, also failed.

The minister read his address.

Some of the workers noted that if the President could not attend the rally, he should have sent the Vice President and not the minister.

The shout of ‘go back to your seat’ by the NLC and TUC leadership with a loud chorus of ‘no’ by the workers was deafening.

Many of the workers sat in their stands to watch the development which lasted for over one hour. A few of them went round the square, chanting “no marching, no marching”.

The workers who had become tired of what was going on began to leave the Square. Guests left the arena through the security exit and the rally ended in confusion.

As many of the workers made to leave the arena, the protesting workers took over the podium chanting “we don win, we don win”. An attempt by security operatives to force them out of the podium almost resulted in violence.

Some of the workers also blocked the police patrol vehicles deployed in the area, prompting security reinforcements to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order.

Dignitaries at the rally, including Senate President Bukola Saraki, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and representative of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), among others, left the venue through the back door .

Ngige attributed the protest to infiltration of the venue by non-workers and the factionalisation of the labour union.

The minister, however, assured that promotion and transfer allowances of workers would be paid in the third quarter of the year. He restated the governments commitment to the welfare of the citizenry, including the workers.

A few unions that were left after majority of the workers had left, observed the traditional march past before leaving the square.

The President assured workers that his administration would implement the recommendations of the main government/labour committee as it relates to the new minimum wage and palliatives to cushion the effect of the harsh economy.

Admitting the hardship being faced by Nigerians, Buhari promised that the government will do all within its power to better their lot by providing a commensurate welfare package.
He said the recently launched Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) was designed to restore economic growth as a result of the challenges of the past two years.

He said: “I am aware of that the economic recession the country found itself at the beginning of the year has huge implication for the seamless conduct of industrial relations.

“This arises from the fact that economic recession by its nature is usually characterised by a substantial risk of the vicious circle of low productivity, mass retrenchment of workers and closure of work places due to high cost of doing business, unregulated subcontracting and outsourcing with its attendant consequences on welfare of workers, among others.

“I strongly believe that the effective deployment of labour relation, which is an amalgam of approaches, could be used in creating a conducive work environment that would attract direct foreign investment for wealth and job creation.

“Therefore anchored on our shared understanding of our predicament, government, workers and employers can work together to pull out our economy from this recession. I call on organised labour to partner with this administration by resorting to social dialogue as an indispensable tool for conflict resolution.

“Today’s (yesterday’s) event reminds all of us of the great sacrifice and contributions the working class has made and continues to make towards wealth creation in the overall interest of our national growth.

“As a responsible and labour-friendly government, my administration will continue to accord high priority to the welfare of workers irrespective of whether they are in the formal or informal sector of our national economy.”

Buhari praised organised labour for its solidarity towards the fight against corruption which, he said has been the bane of sustainable development .

Buhari said: “My administration’s commitment to the fight against corruption is irreversible. We must fight corruption before it destroys us. I therefore call on organised labour to join hands with us in ensuring that workers imbibe the new doctrine of honesty, transparency, accountability and probity in doing government business.

“By our collective resolve and determination, we shall eradicate corruption from our society and the worker should be in the forefront of activities in the realisation of the whistle-blowing policy of this administration.

“The economic recovery and growth plan of this administration is specifically developed for the purpose of restoring economic growth following the challenges experienced in almost two years of our administration that resulted in negative growth.

“I am confident that with your support and cooperation and the strong determination of my government to ensure its full implementation, the three broad strategic objectives which include restoring growth, investing in people and building globally competitive economy will be fully realised.

“The government will give expeditious consideration to the proposal contained in the technical committee report on the new minimum wage and palliatives and government will take necessary steps to implement the final recommendations of the main government labour committee as it relates to the setting up of the new minimum wage committee and the needed palliatives in order to reduce the discomfort currently being experienced by the Nigerian working class.

MAY DAY: Poor wage, job losses top workers’ concerns

Members of National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, during May Day match past.

FOR Nigerian workers, the past one year was a year they will never forget in a hurry. It was a year of massive depreciation of workers’ purchasing power, job losses, unpaid salaries and other benefits and general high cost of living. So, ahead of May 1 Workers’ Day celebration, otherwise known as May Day, top of workers’ worries are poor wage, job losses, unemployment, insecurity.Expectedly, labour leaders across the country will step up demand for among others, new minimum wage which has been on the front burner in labour agenda since 2015 when the existing N18.000 national minimum wage that came into force in 2011 expired.

While Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart, since 2015 have been demanding N52, 000 new minimum wage, the United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, is demanding N96.000.

Though a minimum wage technical committee has recommended the setting up of tripartite minimum wage committee, one of the tripods, Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, has made it clear that private sector employers cannot afford any pay increase for now.

Speaking ahead of May Day’s celebration on the reality of the N56, 000 new wage being demanded, President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said:  “We have looked at the totality of the issues, including the challenges we are going through at the moment and we thought that what we have done is reasonable because what we have done is to look at what is the value of N18, 000 when it was signed looking at the inflation,  the purchasing power and  the ability to pay.

Social  partners

”So, I think we have been reasonable in making such demand and we hope also that other social partners will look at it from the perspective of us being very nationalistic in putting up those demands.

On what NLC will be demanding from government, he said: “As usual we are going to be pushing for the interest of workers; not only workers, but the interest of the Nigerian public, from social and economic angle to security angle, down to issue of strategic institutions like power. All of these will actually be accommodated in our address.

”All issues that pertains to development because it is when the economy is doing well that citizens of the country will also do well, and side by side with the issue of good governance. All of these will actually feature in our May address. But most importantly, the welfare and wellbeing of the workers will be pushed to the front burner because if workers create wealth then they need better attention.”

On his part, president of ULC, Joe Ajaero, told Vanguard “that ULC is aware that in periods like this the workers and their organizations are at the receiving end in terms of reduction on the purchasing power of the wages, saturated wages, outright and callous retrenchment and management having to owe workers for months with no hope of payments. Factories are closing down on daily basis and infrastructure is not improved upon. No electricity, no portable water, no roads etc.”

Enabling  environment

According to him: “For the economy to come out of recession, workers’ take home pay must be increased, as such ULC is insisting on N96, 000 as minimum wage. Government should be responsible enough to create enabling environment for business to thrive. The cost of doing business is too high in the country.

”This is what should be done rather than high ranking Government officials wasting Tax payers’ money going abroad to seek for investors. The issue of security is worrisome. A situation where business men and high ranking and other officials are kidnapped and ransom paid with the security agencies being helpless is undesirable and not good for investors.”

Job losses

Also speaking, President of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Igwe Achese, said: “For the oil and gas workers, it has not been easy. We are the hardest hit as a result of the current global recession which has been worsened with the drop in oil price. The drop in oil price has made the multinationals and contractors to embark on endless redundancies. At our last count, about 3,000 oil workers have lost their jobs because of the oil glut. We are been made to negotiate redundancies on a daily basis and coupled with the slave labour in the industry perpetrated by the multinationals and their service companies, who still engage our members as casuals  and outsourced staff with no condition of service. We will continue to resist it and use all the power at our disposal to put a halt to the menace.

Similarly, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, has decried the insecurity of jobs in the sector due to the economic recession, saying over 6000 jobs were lost in the sector due to harsh operating environment.

President-General of MWUN, Mr. Adewale Adeyanju, pleaded with the government to address the challenges of operators in the sector especially the high cost of doing business.

According to him: “We  equally  call on government and its agencies to enforce the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA,  Act which stipulates that registered Dockworkers must be engaged and granted access to the operation of private jetty owners.

In the same vein, we call on Federal Government to immediately fortify the security in our water ways and also develop it as means of effective transport and employment generation. Indeed, Government should improve on the safety in our water ways to cub the activities.”

ASCSN demands payment of unpaid benefits

For Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, it is demanding among others, that the federal and state governments pay the backlog of salaries and other benefits owed workers, saying  “the federal government should take urgent steps to pay promotion arrears, some of which have been outstanding since 2007, first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, Duty Tour Allowance , DTA, mandatory training allowance due since 2010, repatriation and burial allowances, etc, owed certain categories of its employees.

The Federal and State Governments should also stop illegal recruitment into the Public Services because it kills the morale of dedicated serving Public Servants; desist forthwith from appointing Permanent Secretaries from outside the Civil Service and extending the tenure of Permanent Secretaries because such practices violate the provisions of Public Service Rules and other extant guidelines and regulations dealing with recruitment into the Public Service.

 

New national minimum wage coming

The Technical Committee on National Minimum Wage, saddled with the responsibility of reviewing workers’ salaries to reflect current socio-economic realities, will submit its report next week. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Chris Ngige, told State House correspondents that the two congresses were on the committee. “We are almost finishing our work and we are handing over next week.” He noted with concern the inability of some state governments to settle their monthly workers’ salaries , as well as the inflationary trend in the country. 

“Everyone knows that prices have gone up and in some states, workers are not getting salaries. They are unable to pay the minimum wage. These are the things we have taken into account in our discussion. “We also have warnings from doctors’ union and ASUU, as well as NASU. We are discussing with them but we want to appeal to all of them that there is nothing like warning strike,’’ he said.. 

He, however, advised trade unions to always engage in dialogue and negotiation with constituted authorities in attempting to resolve labour issues. According to him, there is nothing unions cannot achieve through negotiation, urging that unions should always imbibe the culture of social dialogue. “There is nothing you cannot get by negotiation and you cannot get certain things by threats. “Warning strikes as far as government is concerned are threats. 

I have made it clear to them. “Government and labour laws make provision for social dialogue and collective bargaining agreements. It also makes provision for the review of the agreements.” He advised Nigerian unions to imbibe the culture of social dialogue. “They can go on strike after giving the mandatory notices but the same law says in Section 43 that if you withdraw your services, your union is supposed to pay you. Your employer will not pay. “That is how the issue of no work, no pay came up. It is in the country’s labour. For the period you withdraw your services, it will not count for you in your pensionable times. It is taken as broken service,’’ he added. He said it was duty bound on the leaderships of the industrial unions to always lecture their members on the labour law to avoid industrial unrest. Ngige had earlier threatened to invoke ‘No work, no pay’ on the striking members of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). 

The minister issued the threat notice via a statement in Abuja. He urged the striking workers to shelve the five-day warning strike which took effect from Jan. 30. He said: “I wish to assure you that the Federal Government is ready and willing to fully dialogue with members of ASUP and government will open an unhindered channel of communication with all stakeholders and shall maintain this. “Moreover, the Federal Ministry of Education has been discussing issues with ASUP on the concerns raised. “Therefore, it is important for Trade unions to embrace dialogue in the pursuit and attainment of the economic and social interests of their members anchored on equity, natural justice and agreed procedures.’’