The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Kano State, on Wednesday, protested against plans by the National Assembly to move the minimum wage from the exclusive to concurrent legislative list of the constitution.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the workers union, led by the NLC Chairman in Kano state, Mr Ado Minjibir, embarked on the protest to the Kano State House of Assembly to vent their displeasure.
Speaking during the protest, Minjibir said that the NLC will not accept such plans, as it was detrimental to interest of the workers in the state
He said that the protest to the state Assembly was to get the support of the lawmakers to reject the decision whenever it is transmitted to them for confimation.
The NLC chairman said that the bill, which had already scaled second reading at the National Assembly, was not in the interest of workers across all the states.
“Nigerian workers have enjoyed the national minimum wage since 1981, in line with the global standard.
“It took years of hard struggle and enormous sacrifice by Nigerian workers to have the first Minimum Wage Act legislated upon in 1981.
“We recall also that Nigeria ratified ILO convention 26 on national minimum wage since 1961, and had taken the right step of putting the national minimum wage on the exclusive legislative list in the 1979 and 1999 constitutions.
“This has guaranteed workers a certain level of protection in both the public and private sectors across the states.
“This minimum wage floor, which has guaranteed basic income for the lowest level workers in our country, is now what they want to take away clandestinely, not minding its implications for national security and workers well-being.
“National minimum wage on an exclusive legislative list will guarantee workers interest, irrespective of their location in the federation.
“This is the practice in over 90 per cent of the world where tripartism and social dialogue are keys to national minimum wage determination,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria cannot be an exception, except some people want Nigerian workers to be the laughing stock of the world.
He therefore said that any attempt to remove the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list would be considered a declaration of war on the Nigerian workers and this would be resisted.
In his response, Mr Hamisu Chidari, the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, assured the workers that their grievance would be looked into.
He explained that the assembly was always ready to listen to any complaint that concerns the public, especially the workers, therefore the lawmakers would give their protest proper attention.
The speaker further commended the labour unions on how they always handle issues related to the well-being of workers with so much care and concern.
