The Director General of Progressive Governors Forum, PGF, Mr. Salihu Lukman has called for the revival National Labour Advisory Council, NLAC to address challenges of negotiation between Labour leaders, employers and the government in the ongoing minimum wage debate.
Mr. Lukman who said this in a press statement released in Abuja added that the Nigeria Labour Congress campaign on retaining the minimum wage on the Exclusive list was based on distortions of facts.
It is worthy of note that the NLC claims that moving minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list would contravene provision of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention, which Nigeria is a signatory.
However, Mr. Lukman noted that ILO convention no. 30 of 1928 Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery Recommendation provides the guiding principles for the determination of minimum wages in all countries but the convention never stipulated that the process should be the exclusive preserve of federal authorities.
“One of the claims is that moving minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list in the 1999 Nigerian constitution will contravene provision of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention, which Nigeria is a signatory.
“While it is true that ILO Convention No. 30 of 1928 Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Recommendation provide the guiding principles for the determination of minimum wages in all countries, no where was it stipulated that the process should be the exclusive preserve of federal authorities. Anyone interested can confirm the details.
“The guiding principle is ‘to ensure that each Member ratifying the Convention is in possession of the information necessary for a decision upon the application of minimum wage-fixing machinery, the wages actually paid and the arrangements, if any” Lukman said.
He added that even though organised labour has legitimate fears of States abusing the process if moved to the Concurrent Legislative List, NLAC should step in.
“What is required to address such problem is to revive the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC), which normally has representation from labour, employers and government. It used to serve as the tripartite body in Nigeria for the resolution of major labour challenges. As things are, NLAC is hardly existing.
“If we have NLAC, why can’t we have members agree to all the variables determining minimum wage in the country – productivity, conditions of living and affordability, based on which the national minimum is reviewed on annual basis being the proposed benchmark for the country? The National Bureau of. Statistics (NBS), National Salaries, Wages and Income Commission and National Productivity Centre (NPC) can handle the task of providing information about the variables of productivity, cost of living and affordability. With objectively computed information, the process of achieving consensus that highlight the minimum threshold for wages can be handled very effectively. Agreement under NLAC can serve as the federal minimum wage. Once agreement is reached at the level of NLAC, a prototype minimum wage bill can be developed and sent to National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by the Vice President of the Federal Republic with Governors of the 36 states as members. Following consideration and adoption by NEC, states can then domesticate provisions of the agreement as contained in the prototype bill based on their peculiar circumstance” Lukman said.
The PGF DG further advised NLC to the problems of employers implementing minimum wage from the issue of creating laws that would fix the minimum wage.
“Although, many state governments and private employers are having difficulty implementing the N30,000 minimum wage, we should separate the problems associated with implementing agreements from the bigger challenge of correcting wrong procedure used in fixing minimum wage in the country. Problems of implementing agreements can be addressed with reference to invoking provisions of Nigerian arbitration laws, which is what ILO Convention 30 of 1928 recommends. As a nation, we have arbitration law. Why is the leadership of organised labour not taking advantage of provisions of our laws to enforce implementation of minimum wage law?” Lukman said.
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