Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole yesterday led organised labour on protest march to the National Assembly to demand a reversal of the transfer of labour matters from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List. Read more
Oshiomhole pleaded with the National Assembly leadership to revisit the issue as the matter of minimum wage for Nigerian workers was settled as far back as the Second Republic during the administration of former President Shehu Shagari.
The governor stressed that minimum wage was an electoral issue promised workers by his colleagues and they intend to fulfill their own part of the bargain.
His words: “The consequences of removing labour issues from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List goes beyond rhetorics. For example, the National Assembly is obliged to make laws on health and safety issues; if you remove these to concurrent list, every state can go and remove those basic protections on health and safety, on social security, on working hours, on pensions, on those kind of things that go beyond naira and kobo.
“The idea of a national minimum wage is not entertained to fix a national salary scale. The logic of a minimum wage in a democracy is that government is the greatest asset of a citizen. Its responsibility is to protect the weak from those with enormous economic powers
“In the absence of a national minimum wage, some employers would go and pay as low as N5,000. National governments fix a minimum wage to protect weakest workers who have no voice; it is not meant to be a living wage, it is not an average wage, it is the minimum, exactly the same way the National Assembly will legislate on road traffic. These are the rules, that is why we have a Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
“If we do not want anything to set national standards, then, we would not need a national parliament. We believe in moving Nigeria going as one united indivisible entity and the National Assembly is our most outstanding national democratic, people-driven, people-responsive institution.”
From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
Culled from The Sun newspaper
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