18042019 - PRESIDENTIAL TUSSLE:I always beat you in every election, Buhari tells Atiku

24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
08052202308 (sms only)
Stories by Victor Young
LAST week, Vanguard
published report of the
exemption of some workers from
the N30,000 minimum wage
largesse as contained in the Bill
sent to President Muhammadu
Buhari by the National Assembly
for assent.
In this edition, stakeholders
including some members of the
Tripartite Committee on New
Minimum Wage, speak on the
issue.
Those who spoke are
President of United Labour
Congress of Nigeria, ULC, and
General Secretary of National
Union of Electricity Employees,
NUEE; Joe Ajaero.Director-
General of Nigeria Employers’
Consultative Association,
NECA, Mr. Timothy Olawale;
Secretary General of the
Association of Senior Civil
Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN,
Bashir Lawal and Vice President
of Nigeria Labour Congress,
NLC, and General Secretary of
Non-Academic Staff Union of
Educational and Associated
Institutions, NASU, Prince Peters
Adeyemi.
Ajaero
According to the of President
of ULC: “The existing
Minimum Wage Act talks about
50 threshold, and if the Bill
awaiting Presidential assent talks
about 25, then it is an
improvement and more
progressive. But we are looking
at a situation where a ceiling no
longer exit so that if you employ
one worker, even it is a domestic
worker, you should pay him or
her the prevailing national
minimum wage. This is what is
obtainable in other countries of
the world. Domestic workers are
protected under the minimum
wage.
“So, if you have one domestic
worker, it could be a security
man, it should be covered by the
minimum wage law. We need to
continue the campaign to totally
remove the ceiling because a
worker is a worker. The fact that
they are 100 in one place, does
not reduce the prices of goods
in the market. Every worker
goes to the same market whether
he or she is working with
100,0000 persons in a factory or
working alone with the
employer. So, the basis for
saying whether it is 50 or 25,
should not be there in the first
place. The minimum wage
should be for every worker
irrespective of the number at a
particular work environment.
Olawale
On his part, NECA Director-
General said: “The 25 threshold
is part of the recommendation of
the tripartite committee; it was
not contrived by the legislature.
It is to protect and take into
considerations the interest of
small medium and micro
*Joe Ajaero
Shut out of workers from minimum wage:
enterprises who ordinarlly
especially those who are in the
informal sector that might find it
difficult, or struggle to
implement the new minimum
wage. So, it is not new. It was
discussed and debated upon
and everybody agreed to it at the
plenary.”
Lawal
But ASCSN Secretary-
General said: “As far as the
committee is concerned, what it
did was to removed the ceiling
so that all employers of Labour
will be affected. So, we put a
caveat allowing those
employers that might have
difficulty in one way or the other,
within the ambit of the law to
make application to the
appropriate agencies of
government, in this case, the
Minister of Labour and
Employment, to ask for
NLC insists on review of power sector privatisation
Nigeria
Labour
Congress, NLC, has
berated electricity distribution
companies in Nigeria on the
aegis of Electricity Distribution
Companies, DISCOs, for
continuous imposition of
estimated billing on
Nigerians.
NLC in a communiqué at
the end of its Central Working
Committee, CWC, meeting,
called on government to
declare a state of emergency
in Nigeria’s power sector and
take necessary steps to arrest
the situation, ordering the
reversal of the privatization
exercise in the power sector.
The communiqué said
“The CWC decried the
continuous exploitation of
electricity consumer by
Discos through estimated
billing. The CWC went on
to call on government to
*Timothy Olawale
exemption. Such application
will be treated on merit by the
Minister in consultation with the
National Labour Advisory
Council, NLAC, as regards to
any employer that comes
forward to complain that he or
she cannot pay the minimum
wage. The criteria has been
spelled out in the draft we did.
“What we did was supposed to
be a recommendation to
government . I can tell you that
what we did was fine as we have
removed the ceiling. So, if you
as an employer believes that the
nature of your job, and by the
revenue generation, output and
so on, you will not be able to pay
the new minimum wage, you
apply to appropriate agencies of
government to look at it
whether it is justifiable. If it is
Justifiable, they will grant you
your exemption. That was what
we recommended.”
THE International Labour
Organization, ILO, is to
launch a new report on
Occupational Safety and
Health, OSH, today.
The report reviews the ILO’s
100 years of achievements in
OSH and reveals some of the
emerging challenges and
opportunities in creating
better
working
environments.
*Bashir Lawal Alade
Adeyemi
For NLC Vice President, “I
cannot readily give you the
accurate recommendation, but I
know we were even saying that
every employer of Labour should
pay the minimum wage. We were
even talking about situation
where there are some Lawyers’
Chambers who earn so much
but employ about five or six
persons. So, we argued that we
cannot use the number of
employees to determine
whether somebody can pay or
not because there are some
private employers, individuals
who earn so much that employ
fewer workers.
“Before, the threshold was 50
and Labour was pushing for a
total removal of the number and
employers were pushing for a
ceiling. I think we now came
down to a lower figure. I served
in the same committee with
NECA former Director General,
*Prince Peters Adeyemi
•It's to protect vulnerable employers - NECA
•No, every worker deserves minimum wage -- Labour
declare a state of emergency
in Nigeria’s power sector
and take necessary steps to
arrest the situation,
ordering the reversal of the
privatization exercise in the
power sector.
“The CWC also
condemned the continued
refusal by many DISCOs to
supply prepaid meters to
electricity consumers in the
country describing the use
of estimated billing as
daylight robbery of poor
workers and citizens.
The CWC re-affirmed the
commitment of Congress to
ILO to launch new report on OSH today
Embargoed copies of the
report, Safety and Health at
the heart of the future of
Work: Building on 100 years
of experience will be made
available to journalists upon
request, starting on the
afternoon of Tuesday 16 April,
2019 by contacting
newsroom@ilo.org .
A press briefing will be
held, today in press room 1 at
Mr. egun Osinowo and we
recommended a complete
removal. There were issues about
those who work in the
Agricultural sector and they that
would also be affected. But at the
end of the day, the conclusion was
that you cannot completely
remove the threshold.
“There is also the argument
that those who cannot pay
should apply to the Minister of
Labour and Employment, who
will now discuss with other
groups. These groups are
supposed to be members of the
National Labour Advisory
Council whether they can
qualify for exemption or not. In
fact, there was the issue that
those who want exemption can
apply to the Minister of
Labour and the Minister in
consultation with the National
Labour Advisory Council will
consider such application on its
merit.”
picket NERC for failing in
its regulatory duty and also
DISCOs that have refused
to obey Nigeria’s laws and
court processes against
estimated billing of
electricity consumers in
Nigeria.”
the Palais des Nations.
Speakers will be: Joaquim
Pintado Nunes Acting head,
Occupational Safety and
Health and Manal Azzi,
Technical Specialist,
Occupational Safety and
Health. Embargoed
documents will be sent
automatically to UNOG
accredited correspondents as
soon as they become available.