·Says minimum wage discussion'll come up next year·Faults govs reducing working days·Insists on probe of subsidy regime
Ahead of Monday's rescheduled meeting between the Federal Government and Organized Labour over petrol subsidy removal, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has said its priority would be to get salary awards to cushion the effects on workers.
At the ongoing 111th Session of the International Labour Conference, ILC, in Geneva, Switzerland, NLC explained that the salary award was different from the minimum wage negotiation which would come up next year.
Briefing Nigerian journalists at the conference, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, faulted state governors for reducing working days in a week, warning that such ad hoc measures would worsen the socio-economic situation in the country.
He said: "We had that agreement with them. The agreement we had with them is not on minimum wage. The agreement we had with them is on wage award and it must be understood clearly.
The minimum wage will be due by early next year. And we will review the minimum wage statutorily.
"Now that they have taken action by removing subsidies without providing anything, that is why they are talking about minimum wage. And they (the federal and state governments) are talking at cross purposes.
"It is all-important that people understand the concept when they use minimum wage wrongly or rightly. We have proposed to them a wage award, which could be implemented immediately without waiting for the statutory period for the minimum wage law or for it to expire.
"This will not stop the review of minimum wage by early next year. It is good we draw this demarcation.
"There is wage award and there is minimum wage. Even early this year, the federal government gave some of their workers a kind of wage award of about 40 per cent that has nothing to do with minimum wage. It was to cushion the effects of COVID-19 and others.
"Now that we are having the effect of this subsidy removal, we will look at an award that will cushion it. In this country, in the 70s, we had the Udoji Award and others. Whatever we are going to come up with we will achieve, but not minimum wage.
"Why will you engage in minimum wage negotiations now because they removed subsidy? The ruling class, especially state governors, have not abided by the minimum wage Act and have not been able to convince anybody why they are not paying N30,000 minimum wage.
"They are the people pronouncing the salary increase. Somebody that is still paying N18,000 when the minimum wage is N30,000, if you increase it to N100,000, what will he pay? Some of them are trying to prove that they don't have any idea about the economy of the state.
"They are now saying there will be three working days and so on as a temporary measure. They have reduced productivity in a country that is having economic shock, and you are reducing the days of production.
"What do you think will happen? The economy will not survive. You are telling a doctor to come to work for three days, you are telling a nurse to work for three days. And you are telling a teacher about the challenges we are having in schools to come for three days. All these are ad hoc measures that cannot provide any solution.
"Our meeting on Monday 19 is to give life to that agreement and have some technical committee to give life to the implementation of that agreement. For over 30 years, as much as I can remember, it had been the issue of an increase in the pump price of PMS, labour would protest, everybody would protest, and the government would reduce the price by maybe N50 or N80.
"By the time they are reducing it by N80, it is assumed that it is an N80 subsidy. They would be harassing us that they are subsidizing the product.
"The next time they are increasing it, they will increase with maybe N200 or N300 and not the same N80, the issue of subsidy became a reoccurring decimal. We have been asking ourselves, what do we do? Can't we do things differently?
"That was how we came up with a module of having a Compressed National Gas, CNG, based on the fact that Nigeria has large natural gas deposits.
"The study we found, especially the pilot study conducted in the Edo area where about 10,000 vehicles were converted to CNG, shows and the report came out from the mouth of the former Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, that a litre of CNG will cost about N90."
"On the basis of that, even Innoson Motors came to address us and said he was going to produce vehicles that will have provision for CNG and PMS. So, if you don't want to buy PMS at N500 and above per litre, you buy CNG.
" If you want to buy CNG at N90 per litre, buy it. But in the construction of the vehicles, you have a switch to whatever you want. If you switch to CNG, you use CNG; if you switch to PMS, you use PMS.
"It is now left for Nigerians to determine the one that suits him/her. At least the labour movement has been able to think outside the box to provide this alternative.
"We are not deceived because there is going to be a fight. The powerful force behind the PMS subsidy that had fought us all these years would make sure CNG does not see the light of day.
"We did not even want to go into the politics of subsidy because we knew that as far as NLC is concerned, we do not know the people receiving the subsidy. We do not know the people importing and exporting. So, it is exclusive to them.
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"But we have asked them to investigate the subsidy regime because it is not enough to say subsidy is gone and we cover it up. Let us know those involved, let us know what they did or what they are doing.
"In that agreement, there is the issue of having modular refineries. There are areas in Akwa Ibom today where diesel sells for about N300 or N400; they are from modular refineries there.
"While we buy diesel in Lagos and Abuja for N800, they buy at between N300 and N400. So, if you have all these modular refineries, it will bring down the cost.
"We have all insisted that the Warri and the Port Harcourt refineries they have awarded contracts must be concluded as soon as possible. So if you have these options, things will go well but if you allow one individual to supply PMS, it is going to be difficult.
"One of the commonest ways to create high prices is to create artificial scarcity or monopoly. Everybody will be pursuing one product and the price of that product will go up.
"If there is no availability, you cannot have affordability and accessibility. I must tell you that the aspect of implementation is a battle we must all engage in."
