Of Unpaid Workers and Corruption
"LKY DID NOT ACHIEVE THE LAUDABLE GOAL OF STAMPING OUT CORRUPTION IN HIS COUNTRY, BY PAYING A PRIVILEGED SECTION OF THE SOCIETY AN EXAGGERATED SALARY, WHILE PAYING THE MAJORITY OF WORKERS A PITTANCE, AND STILL OWING THEM THAT PITTANCE FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME. POOR SALARIES + NON-PAYMENT OF SALARIES = PERFECT COMBINATION FOR CORRUPTION"
May Day
May 1st, May Day, also known as Labour Day or International Workers’ Day or Loyalty Day, occurs all over the world every year. Aside from being a day that some foreign countries set aside to enjoy the season of bright sunny warm Spring, after months of cold miserable wet Autumn and Winter weathers, it is also a day when workers all over the world, show solidarity. They march, protest and make their demands for more favourable working conditions, to their various Governments.
The connotation of this day dates back as far as the 19th Century, May 1886, when some American workmen organised a nationwide demonstration and strike, in support of an 8- hour work day, as the norm for workers then, was between a 10 and 16-hour work day in harsh and unsafe conditions, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. Several people lost their lives in that protest, while many more were injured. But thanks to them, today the 8- hour work day is the norm in most parts of the world.
Minimum Wage v Living Wage While members of the National Assembly enjoy the benefits of mysterious, exorbitant and unjustifiable salaries with perquisites, and Governors enjoy their “security votes” which they do not have to account for, May 1, 2017, was indeed a day of shame for Nigeria, where workers took to the streets to protest that Government increase the minimum wage to N56,000.
A Minimum Wage is the lowest wage permitted by law. However, it may not necessarily be sufficient. What we should be discussing is not a Minimum Wage that is far from adequate, but a Living Wage, that is, a wage that is adequate enough to maintain at least, a subsistence standard of living. I wonder how the present minimum wage of N18,000 per month can pay rent, feed a family of husband and wife and 2 children, send their children to school, buy them uniforms, buy them clothes, etc?
Nigerian Workers In Nigeria, May Day, 2017, was a day of workers’ protests alright, protesting to be paid salaries which in some cases, have not been paid for over a year. Kogi State ‘took the cake’ and won the award for non-payment of salaries, as it had 15 months unpaid salaries! Osun, 12 months, Kwara, 11 months, Bayelsa, 7 months, Ondo, 7 months, Ekiti, 6 months, Oyo, 6 months and the list goes on. Thankfully, Anambra, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Cross River, Rivers, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, Sokoto and Zamfara States, are excluded from the debtors list. Last week, I saw a headline in one of the dailies saying doctors, who should be held in the highest esteem, are protesting non-payment of 22 months salaries
Labour Act and Sick Leave What is good for the goose, they say, is good for the gander. Section 16 of the Labour Act provides that every worker is entitled to 12 days paid sick leave per annum, for temporary illness certified by a registered medical practitioner. However, it seems that conveniently, the Labour Act is only applicable to those that are involved in manual labour and clerical duties, both in the private and public sectors, and not the professional and elite workers, who seem to be able to take more than 70 days or unlimited paid sick leave per annum, either in Nigeria or abroad, (with all medical expenses covered by the employer, without fulfilling the conditions required to qualify for the non-professional worker’s 12 day paid sick leave).
If my memory serves me right, Section 42(1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) (the Constitution) provides inter alia (amongst other things), that no Nigerian citizen shall enjoy privileges or advantages that are not accorded to other citizens.
If it was a low income worker that was ill and had to take 70 days off work, chances are that not only would the employer not bear the cost of the medical expenses, he or she would probably be sacked from that job.
With what Nigeria experienced with the late President Yar'Adua and now, President Buhari's health challenges, it may be sensible for those that want to aspire to be President, to undertake medical tests and be certified fit, not necessarily fit with perfect health, but fit enough to do the job, just like the tests most people have to undertake, to be able to qualify to work in many establishments. While Vice President Osinbajo did show Nigerians that he was indeed, up to the task to lead the country when President Buhari was away on medical leave in the UK earlier this year, there is however, a reason why the Constitution provides for the two offices of President and Vice President, not just that the Vice Present should act in the position of the President in the President's absence, but for them to function together as a team.
I however, concede that President Buhari is certainly not a young man. He was over the age of 70 when he was elected as President of Nigeria, and this fact, was well known to all Nigerians when they voted him in. It is also common place for the health to start failing at that age. My point is that, just as the President is being shown understanding and compassion, so also Nigerian Pensioners especially, who only have their Pensions for support in their old age, should also be treated with respect and compassion. They should not have to beg to be paid their pensions timeously.
Fight Against Corruption And the Government says that it is fighting corruption? If these workers are only just corrupt, Government should be thankful. It is a wonder that they have not all hit the streets and taken to different types of criminal activities, in order to eke out a living. When, in the first place, you pay someone a pittance of N18,000 per month, and then, you withhold it for almost one and a half years, how do you expect such a person to survive? To go to their landlords, the market, children’s schools etc and request that these services should be provided for them on credit, because their salaries have not been paid? Meanwhile, we have never heard that Government owes the members of the National Assembly their salaries.
And even if the members of National Assembly are owed salaries, they are paid excessively and have enough to keep them going until they are eventually paid.
Recently, Nigerian Pensioners also had cause to visit the National Assembly, because of this same issue of non-payment of pensions. Helpless old people, who have served this country in their youth, and Government treats them so shabbily and denies them of their rights?
This is simply despicable. SHAME! Nigerian Government’s (both past and present) secret of its penchant for owing workers remuneration blew open internationally, when workers at the Nigerian Embassy, Washington DC, USA, were reported to have gone on strike and shut down, to protest the non-payment of their 5 months salaries. The report stated that they even threatened to report the Nigerian Government to the American Labour Department. SHAME! However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since come out to refute this claim, stating that only some junior workers of the Embassy were being owed salaries, and urgent moves were being made to rectify the situation. My point exactly. Government seems to be in the habit of generally discriminating against junior workers and treating them badly, even those serving abroad. Why pay those who can afford to be owed salaries, exorbitant salaries and timeously too, and then owe those who cannot make ends meet, the pittance that is due to them, that they so desperately need?
Government should desist from the hypocrisy.
You cannot say that you do not want corruption on the one hand, while you create a beautiful environment for corruption to thrive, on the other hand. Some months ago, I cited the example of Lee Kwan Yew (LKY), the former Prime Minister of Singapore, and how he was able to stamp out corruption in his country. LKY increased the salaries of Civil Servants. He said that if they were underpaid, they may be tempted to engage in corruption (talk less of being unpaid, as in the case of Nigerian workers). As the economy improved, their salaries were increased, so that it was not only the private sector that enjoyed the boom. LKY did not achieve the laudable goal of stamping out corruption in his country, by paying a privileged section of the society an exaggerated salary, while paying the majority of workers a pittance, and still owing them that pittance for extended periods of time. Poor Salaries + Non-Payment of Salaries = Perfect Combination for Corruption.
Judges Ditto for Judges. In 2016, during the festive Christmas season, Judges were being owed their salaries, and they were instructed not to accept any Christmas gifts from lawyers or anyone else. With their less than adequate salaries and mounting expenses due to rising prices, how much savings would they have to tide them over a rainy day? Don’t Judges have families to support too? Should they not live and survive like everyone else? This is not to say that I support judicial corruption. But like LKY, I believe that putting them in this type of desperate situation, will invariably do more harm than good. Some of the Judges have not had an increase in salary for over 15 years, yet prices of goods and services have not remained static, but have increased astronomically.
In Lagos State for example, each Judge may have up to 400 cases in his or her docket, while in some other State Judiciaries, the same number of 400 cases constitutes the total number of cases that they have in the whole of their State Judiciary. Yet in the two scenarios, their remuneration is similar.
Doctrine of Inequality and Unfairness Until this doctrine of inequality and unfairness, partiality towards the higher placed people within the Nigerian work force is addressed, corruption and dissatisfaction will definitely continue to prevail in our country.