The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday took a swipe at the tax regime of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying that workers in the country now pay more taxes than what they receive from the recently increased minimum wage.
The NLC also recommended to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) payment of a universal wage system and universal conditions of service for workers.
It accused the Nigerian government of not honouring products of collective bargaining, adding that social safety net is almost zero in the country.
This is as the Director General of the ILO, Gilbert Houngbo, has said that lasting peace will only be possible through social justice.
Speaking at the Tripartite Panel on Global Coalition for Social Justice at the UN House in Abuja, the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, faulted the claims by some of the representatives of the federal government that the economic policies have started to show positive signs.
He said, “We are in this hall, and somebody is telling us that the economic policies are showing positive signs. When this government came into power, they removed subsidy on petroleum products; by that, millions of naira were expected to come in.
“I want to find out the roads they have used that money to build. The tax regime today: some of the civil servants here pay more than the increase in minimum wage. What they were collecting before the minimum wage is higher than what they’re collecting now because of the tax regime.
“Electricity tariff is unbearable; people are paying for darkness in this country. We are talking about green energy; not a lot has happened in terms of going green. We are still paying more attention to fossil fuel with all the attendant health hazards and environmental pollution in this country.
“Before, the Nigerian government promised to get zero emissions by 2030; today, after the Dubai whatever, they are talking of 2060 now, which means there is no conscious effort so far to attend to this zero emission target.”
Ajaero commended the ILO Director General for coming up with the dialogue on social justice.
He said, “I want to thank you for this attention on social justice you are talking of. The DG, you have been showing a lot of passion on this, probably because of the background where we come from. We talked about social safety nets.
“I think that’s almost zero in Nigeria. Nigerians generate their power. Nigerians sink boreholes for their water. There’s no public transportation in Nigeria that is free for people to go. The hospitals are not there.
“Even the contributory pension policy, some companies have not remitted what they deducted for 60 months. It is hard for us to talk about social safety nets in a country like this without passion. We have to look at tax justice and even energy justice. We have to put them together in the context of the social justice net so that we will arrive at a particular point, but I think the major problem we have is greed by the capitalist in our society, and that is what is pushing the whole world to war.
“And no economy thrives in an era of insecurity and war. If I tell you the demography of insecurity in this country today, you will know why we are having some of the challenges; you will know why we are having problems with productivity.”
He said that there is a lot of advantages in digital economy; he advised that while it was being done, efforts should be made to regulate artificial intelligence (AI).
He further suggested that if it is possible, there should be a universal wage system.
According to him, “And we equally need to look at if it is possible a universal or global wage system, even if we have indices like $50 or $20 and countries of the world key into it and we know where some of us are standing.
“And it’s important to have a universal condition of service, a framework or a benchmark for countries of the world to key in from there. We now know how to manage ourselves, where we are today, in the scheme of things globally.
“I have not come here to talk about what we did this, we did that. Tripartism is almost coming to nothing. Products of collective bargaining in this country are not honoured. Negotiation: almost two weeks now, there was a 50% increase in tariff, and we kicked, and we agreed that within two weeks, we set up a 10 persons committee to negotiate. Two were almost gone by yesterday; all the telecom companies have enforced it, despite the fact that almost the top level of government was present at that meeting.
“I need to say that the sanctity of collective agreement, whether ILO or global organisations, is that the agreement must be respected when agreement is reached between government and labour.
“The minimum wage that was mentioned here, as of today, most organisations, most corporations have not implemented it almost a year after. But if it is a tax regime, you can see a situation where you increased the minimum wage this month; you have not implemented it, but there are taxes and tariffs that have made a mess of that minimum wage if it is eventually being implemented. I think we need to broaden and respect the issues of social dialogue.”
On his part, the ILO Director General, Gilbert Houngbo, said that lasting peace is only possible through social justice.
He said, “Social dialogue must drive human-centred economic transformation, including technological transformation, ensuring job creation aligned with fair wages, social protection, and sustainable practices.
“As Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria has the responsibility to lead by example in developing inclusive and sustainable labour policies.”
Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Vanessa Phala, said the most important thing about the initiative was the collaborative nature of its form where many voices are brought together and critical partners sit together to dialogue on how to move social justice agenda forward.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria