Govs to Labour: Expect sacking if we must pay N30,000 minimum wage

* We only negotiated minimum wage, not sacking –
Labour

Nigerian governors have said they cannot afford to pay workers a
minimum wage of N30,000 unless the organised labour wants its
members to be sacked.

Apart from this, the governors at their emergency meeting in
Abuja on Wednesday night, asked the Federal Government to also
accede to the review of the national revenue allocation
formula.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum who is also the
Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, who read the
communiqué after the meeting, said that a new committee would be
raised to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over the issue.

He said the committee would work out another formula towards
quickly resolving the problem associated with the proposed minimum
wage.

Yari said, “Following a meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum
where we deliberated on the national minimum wage, governors
resolved to re-strategise and put together another committee to
meet with the President once again, to work out another formula
towards quickly resolving the problem associated with the proposed
N30.000 minimum wage which is impracticable unless labour agrees to
a downsizing of the workforce all over the country or the Federal
Government itself accedes to the review of the national revenue
allocation formula.

“Members of the committee who were nominated to see the
President include the governors of Lagos, Kebbi, Plateau, Bauchi,
Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi. Enugu and Kaduna.”

The federation account is currently being managed on a legal
framework that allows funds to be shared under three major
components – statutory allocation, Value Added Tax distribution;
and allocation made under the derivation principle.

Under statutory allocation, the Federal Government gets 52.68
per cent of the revenue shared; states, 26.72 per cent; and local
governments, 20.60 per cent.

The framework also provides that Value Added Tax revenue be
shared thus; FG, 15 per cent; states, 50 per cent; and LGs, 35 per
cent.

Similarly, extra allocation is given to the oil producing states
based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.

Yari said that he and his colleagues had seen the report of the
Tripartite Committee report presented to President Muhammadu
Buhari.

The committee, which is headed by Amal Pepple, recommended N30,
000 as minimum wage.

Though the President received the report, he however said that
he was still studying it.

Yari said that the committee did not consider the submission of
the governors who had earlier said they could only afford to pay
N22, 500 as minimum wage.

He said, “We have seen what has been presented to the President
by the (Tripartite) Committee.

“As a member of the committee, our representative there said the
committee did not take our submission of N22,500 because it came
late.

“I am surprised. How can you do this without the input of the
states because the states are the key stakeholders in this
business.

“So, a situation whereby our report was not taken or considered
by the Tripartite Committee … then I don’t know how the committee
wants us to work.”

He regretted that while the governors would want to pay, they
would not be able to do so due to meagre resources available to
them.

He said “But we still say we want to pay, but the issue is the
ability to pay.

“If we say no, it is not about the ability to pay, just pay, I
don’t know how this formulae will work and I don’t know how we can
get a solution to the issue.

“We are paying N18,000 (as minimum wage today), but when the
President assumed office, about 27 states were not able to pay, not
that they chose not to pay.

“So, now you say N30,000, how many of them can pay? We will be
bankrupt (if we pay). So as Nigerians, we should look at the issues
seriously.

“While other people are saying that governors are riding jets
and living in affluence, that one is not luxury but compulsory.

“Like Lagos that is paying about N7bn as salaries; if you say it
should pay N30,000, now it will be N13bn.

“From our calculation, it is only Lagos State that will be able
to pay N30,000. As Nigerians, this is our country; there is no
other country we have and we should be fair to this country.”

He said governors would continue to dialogue with workers on the
need for them (the workers ) to see the difficulties they
(governors ) were facing.

He said, “As for the way forward, we will continue to talk with
Labour. Let them see reasons and difficulties some of us have.

“For instance, the money Lagos State is using to pay is not
coming from Abuja.

“They have a way of getting their money from the IGR and that is
why they can afford to pay. They get money through VAT (as
well).

“Apart from Lagos, even Rivers State cannot afford to pay. So we
have been crying out about this since 2011 but no one will
listen.

“One critical example is that some states ration their salaries
while some others put everything they earn on the table and ask
labour to come and see and ask them to suggest how much should go
for capital and personnel costs.

“Some say 70 per cent for personnel cost and 30 per cent for
capital projects and yet the states cannot pay and they put the
remaining as outstanding.”

He said it was wrong to use the price of crude oil in the
international market to determine the minimum wage.

Yari said, “So, let us look at this matter seriously to see how
we can do it properly. It is our primary responsibility to see that
everybody is happy.

“It is the same labour that is pushing for the N30,000 that will
still turn around to say that the governors did not do any
infrastructure and how are we going to achieve that by paying only
salaries?”

We only negotiated minimum wage, not sacking –
Labour

In his reaction, the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour
Congress, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, told one of our correspondents that
the governors should not mix up the issue of negotiation for
minimum wage with sacking or employing workers.

According to him, the organised labour was only interested in
pursuing what would be the minimum wage of workers and ensuring
that the workers were not subjected to slave/master situation in
their country.

Ozo-Eson said, “The process of downsizing is governed by an
established process under the International Labour Organisation
Convention.

“We are not discussing downsizing of the workforce or employment
of workers.

“What we are discussing is the minimum wage. We want to know
exactly what the minimum wage is. The issue of downsizing is of
collective bargaining. The issues should not be mixed. We don’t
want workers to be slaves to their employers.”