Nigerian workers, under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), yesterday, came hard on federal lawmakers and threatened to shut down the economy if the House of Representatives passes a bill intended to move the minimum wage legislation from Exclusive List to Concurrent List.
The controversial Bill which is sponsored by Mr Garba Datti Muhammad (APC: Kaduna) had last week scaled second reading at the plenary of the House of Representatives presided by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.
The bill seeks to alter the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to, among others, transfer the subject matter of minimum wage prescription from the exclusive legislative list, set out under Part I of the second schedule, to the concurrent legislative list set out under part II of the Second Schedule of the Constitution.
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Justifying the bill, Datti argued that the Bill which has been referred to the House ad hoc Committee on the Review of the Constitution for consideration, was part of the measure required to ensure true federalism and devolution of powers in the country.
The lawmaker had argued that it was improper for the Federal Government to impose the ₦30,000 minimum wage on states whose means of income and resources differ.
He said if the bill sails through, the recurring labour conflicts between the government and labour unions would be nipped in the bud as labour unions can negotiate wages for their members in their respective states.
According to him, under the Independence and 1963 Constitutions prescription of the minimum wage was a concurrent matter to be legislated upon by both the National Assembly.
The National President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, who led hundreds of members to the House of Representatives, vowed that the organised labour would resist the passage of the proposed legislation.
Saying the decision to vest in the Federal Government the power to fix minimum wage was in tandem with international best practices, he blamed bad governance for the problem associated with the non-implementation of the ₦30,000 minimum wage.
He said: ‘I also know governors collect the same salary across the country, councilors, members of state and National Assembly collect the same salary, so why is the case for workers different?
‘Governors collect humongous security votes that have not been used to address the issues of insecurity in the country. If we reduce all of these, I am sure we would have more than enough to pay minimum wage. Minimum is minimum. It is a national benchmark.
‘This is our first port of call and therefore they represent every Nigerian. Every constituency is represented. It is my honour and privilege to hand over our letter of protest on behalf of Nigerian workers to the Senate President and Speaker of the House.’
The speaker of the House of Representatives in his response, however, said the powers to fix minimum wages of workers in the country would surely be vested with the 36 states governments of the country during the review of the 1999 constitution.
He told the NLC that a final decision on a Bill on the issue had not been made yet.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
