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How To Resolve Minimum Wage Crisis – Olaopa
The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission ( FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has suggested ways to resolve the current minimum wage.
Olaopa spoke on Monday in Abuja during a retreat on “Labour Reforms and the Quest for Living Wage in Nigeria: A Focus on Legislative Intervention” organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).
The bureaucrat who said that the topic was relevant since the process of fixing a national minimum wage was yet to be resolved recalled that in April 2024, President Bola Tinubu constituted a 37-member Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage with the charge to recommend a New Minimum Wage (NMW). He said the timing of this significant move by the government was predicated on the attainment of the statutory 5-year periodicity following the last enactment of the rate in April 2019; and the significant rise in the cost of living resulting largely from the FGN’s removal of subsidies on petroleum products, and its unification of FOREX rates .
Prof. Tunji Olaopa being interviewed.
He disclosed that there was a stalemate among the parties and the Tripartite (government, OPS, and labour unions) on the acceptable rate to adopt, which keeps threatening national industrial peace and harmony.
While he noted the minimum pay would motivate workers to work hard as to improve productivity, he noted the need to reckon with the capacity of employers to pay the contemplated wage level, given their revenue base, other cost commitments, bottom-line and their capacity to meet their basic mandates.
Explaining concepts such as wage and salary, Olaopa said: ” There are so many concepts embedded in this conversation. It is not useful to make this clarification academic. Consequently, I will simply explain the meaning so we are on the same page as I proceed.The first is wages, which in a general sense is a pecuniary reward paid to an employee for his or her services to an organisation. In a classical sense however, a wage is the emolument paid for specific units of labour rendered, usually measured hourly or daily rates, and is usually applicable to blue-collar jobs in factory lines.The second concept is salary, which in practical terms is the same thing as a wage; a reward for employee’s service. It is however technically different, as unlike wages, it is measured in annual rates and paid in monthly instalments, usually applicable to white collar jobs. The third category is pay, which encompasses wages and salaries as well as any regularly paid allowances or emoluments.The fourth is remuneration or compensation which is a broad term that includes wages or salaries, but wider in scope to cover financial allowances as well as such non-pecuniary benefits such as paid vacation, study leave, provision of car allowance or free transport, accommodation, medical expenses, other staff loans, long-service awards, etc.”
A group photograph of Prof. Tunji Olaopa, the Minister of State for Labour, Nkiruka Onyejeocha , Nigeria Labour Congress President Joe Ajaero, and others at the event.
Olaopa also distinguished between the living wage and minimum wage. According to him, “a living wage is an income level that allows the employees and his/her households (as might be bench-marked) to afford minimum or adequate shelter, food, and other basic necessities of life.
“Minimum wage, on the other hand, is the lowest amount of remuneration required to be paid by law to an employee by an employer for work performed during a given period”.
According to Olaopa, the Tripartite Committee, chaired by Alhaji Goni Aji, has submitted its report to the President. But the latest information is that there is yet no agreement on the proposed wage figure.
He said that whereas labour’s last offer is N250,000 per month, that of government and private sector employers is in the region of N60,000.
According to him, faced with this impasses, the president has the option of calling Labour for a last-ditch discussion toward some compromise figure or to submit government’s preferred figure to the National Assembly for enactment.
“If the second option is chosen, the National Assembly will be advised to take up the gauntlet of mediation to reach a mutual rate, before the enactment.
“Where no agreement is reached after such efforts, the Assembly can pass the law anyway, because it is not absolutely necessary that agreement is reached in every negotiation,” he said.
Regarding issues raised by Comrade Joe Ajaero, President, Nigerian Labour Congress and others during the discussion of his paper, Olaopa opined that even in an ideal situation, the tripartite committee would still have some points of fundamental disagreement regarding workers rights and condition of service.
He said: “With regard to the unresolved minimum wage, even the N62,000 which the government is proposing, if calculated and extrapolated along compression ratio and the consequential it will generate, implementing will be significant pressure on the national economy, how much more if government meets the labour even half-way to the N250,000 it proposed?
“The only window according to him, is for the government to work harder on unbundling the bloated cost of governance through efficiency cum productivity audits of the entire expenditure structure of government with a view to freeing resources to finance development programmes and enhanced remuneration for the workforce. And even at that the government would only have addressed the government side and not that of the private sector.
“Indeed, the nation has reached a point where the tripartite committee needs a no-holds-barred conversation that should culminate in a national summit, the objective of which will be to arrive at a shared vision on Nigeria’s development future and how to achieve industrial harmony that is so badly required for national economic transformation. And the paper presented by Hon. Justice Benedict Kanyip, president of the National Industrial Court has thrown up some issues that should feature along with numerous others in that national conversation.”
An Isoko socio-cultural and non-partisan organisation Enyaharo Okugbe Emo Isoko (Enyaharo Isoko) has condemned in very strong terms the arrest and detention of social media content creator Ajiri-Oghene Otagba (also popularly known as MC2 Kingdom) since Friday by a contractor Matthew Edevbie who abandoned the 132KVA power sub-station at Ozoro in Isoko North LGA of Delta State for well over 15 years now.
In a statement on Sunday, the group said that it was “a sad commentary on moral deficiency that a man who abandoned a contract he successfully bid for, won and then abandoned halfway would turn around to arrest anyone calling on him to return to site to complete the said project. Isoko experiences the worst power outage in all of Nigeria because of the flagrant recalcitrance of Edevbie who has refused to complete the contract, but who finds it easy to arrest anyone calling him out to account. It is a tragic irony that Isoko that gives Nigeria over 15% of her daily oil production output has been in darkness for years because of Edevbie’s inefficiency, but is efficient in wilfully taking the laws into his hands to compromise The Nigeria Police to perpetrate injustice on an innocent Nigerian.
Ajiri-Oghene Otagba
“After reviewing the circumstances of Ajiri-Oghene Otagba’s arrest by men of the Nigeria Police in Lagos in Gestapo fashion and subsequently dragging him to Abuja for prosecution in a civil matter of alleged defamation that should not concern the Nigeria Police as the IGP Egbetokun recently warned his men, Enyaharo views the development as an act of aggression and oppression of a poor Nigerian youth and whistle-blower, and therefore an affront to the sensibility of the Isoko nation by Edevbie and his companies,”
The statement by the President of Enyaharo Mr. Amos Iwary continued: “You cannot fart on someone and then turn around to give him a knock on the head for your indiscretion. That’s exactly what Mr. Edevbie has done to the entire Isoko nation. He alone failed to complete a contract he duly won over 15 years ago. Upon being asked to return to site to complete it, he replies by arresting an Isoko son who is affected by Edevbie’s breach of contract that denies him (Otagba and millions of Isoko people) power to run their business
“Enyaharo Isoko therefore calls on Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to immediately set processes in motion to compel Edevbie and his company to return to site to complete the Ozoro power sub-station’s upgrade from the initial 132KVA contract awarded him. Isoko has suffered enough power problems on account of Edevbie’s contract breach. Edevbie is killing businesses in Isoko while his people in Ughelli enjoy uninterrupted power supply. Edevbie’s action is sabotage of the business aspirations of Isoko people. Edevbie is preventing new businesses from being established to engage our army of youths. Edevbie’s stubborn refusal to complete the power sub-station is an act of economic sabotage to Isoko. It stops now.
“Enhayaro Isoko hereby demands from Delta State Government that, should Edevbie refuse to return to site and complete the project, he should immediately return all monies paid him so far on the Ozoro power sub-station, so the contract is awarded to a more reliable contractor to execute the project in the shortest possible time. In fact, we give the state government till the end of 2025 to complete the Ozoro power sub-station, so Isoko can have light. Edevbie might deceive himself that he arrested only one Isoko son. But in fact, he has arrested the entire Isoko nation for demanding what is theirs by right. Isoko will not stand by and let this injustice go unchallenged and unpunished.”
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