MAY 1st every year is set aside globally to celebrate Workers Day. As it is the tradition yearly, it is a day in which organized labour draws global attention to the dignity of labour, conditions of service of their workers, agitate for better working conditions of their members and demand better and improved welfare package for workers.
BUT, as Nigerian Workers joined their counterparts across the world to mark this year’s workers day, there appears to be a consensus that insecurity of lives and property, exploitation and casualisation, minimum wage imbroglio, abuse of expatriates quotas, unemployment, retrenchment, threatening to factionalise congress, as well as effects of an ailing economy were generally issues that gained attention in labour circles.
SIGNIFICANTLY, this year’s Workers Day celebration in Nigeria was remarkable in many respects. First, it was the last to be marked by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration and perhaps the last for several state governments whose tenures wind up on May 28, this year. The reason is that the year 2015, being the year of general elections in Nigeria, witnessed a significant shift or change of power from the ruling party, the PDP government to the major opposition party, the APC.
HOWEVER, as Nigerian Workers are largely expected to maintain neutrality, impartiality and to serve the government in power with all diligence and commitment, it goes without saying that partisanship has no place in their service to fatherland. The point is that Nigerian Workers must at all times, offer their services beyond political party lines just as the government of the day owes them the responsibility to meet their demands and make the working environment conducive for their services.
CURIOUSLY, there are very salient issues that are of critical importance to the Nigerian Workers today and which they expect both, out-going and the incoming administrations to tackle squarely. These range from the review or full implementation of the constitutionally approved minimum wage of N18,000 per month; salary relativity; timely promotion of workers; training and retraining; payment of relevant allowances such as 22% weigh-in or hazards allowances for media workers which most state governments have uptil now, failed to implement; casualisation of workers which is a crime against labour, among others.
TILL date, the verdict of many Nigerians is that the working condition of the average Nigerian worker is yet to improve. This is so considering the various promise that have been made in the past, with regards to the welfare of Nigerian Workers, most of which remained unfulfilled.
ONLY recently, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) agreed not to support any move by the Federal Government to inflict further hardship on Nigeria workers through removal of subsidy on petroleum products. Their position stepped from the passage of the 2015 appropriation Bill by both houses of the National Assembly without allocating any money for subsidy payment, indicating that government was preparing for full-scale removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
ON what the NLC is doing to put smiles on the faces of workers in Nigeria, the NLC Deputy President and Chairman of the Joint May Day celebration of the two labour bodies – NLC and TUC – Peters Adeyemi had said in Abuja that organized labour intended to use the May Day celebration to let the government know that the minimum wage was due for renegotiation, adding that N18,000 could no longer take the worker home.
THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER totally identifies with the plight of the Nigerian worker in terms of inadequate remuneration and the toiling nature of his working environment as
well as conditions of service, which most times are quite unfavourable. Consequently, we urge all workers under the NLC and the TUC to use this year’s May Day celebration, a most symbolic day wherein they join their comrades the world over not only to celebrate dignity of labour, but celebrate working class solidarity and unity in constructively demanding for their entitlements within the ambits of the law.
THE summation of the 2015 May Day should, indeed, be that the out-going administration should be magnanimous enough to accord Nigerian Workers their due place in the socio-economic and political life of the country by giving Nigerian Workers an improved welfare package, as a parting gift.
The services of the Nigerian Worker to the nation and his contribution to the economic and political life of the nation are immeasurable and unquantifiable and therefore we urge the incoming Buhari administration to be workers-friendly, motivate and boost their morale.
WE hold the view that at no other time than now should the Nigerian worker be encouraged, motivated and propelled to contribute his quota to the economy. The only viable way to do this, in our view, is for the government to increase the minimum wage of the Nigerian worker to a living wage standard to mitigate the harsh effects of the global crash in the price of petroleum prices and make work worth the while.