The new income policy guidelines were released by the Productivity, Prices and Incomes Board. Under these guidelines, the Federal State set a 15 per cent wage increase ceiling on all private sector workers earning less than 3,000 Naira a year. A 10 per cent ceiling was fixed for those earning more than 3,000 Naira a year. These ceilings were to remain in effect for the next three years.
The guidelines also banned private employers from increasing fringe benefits for their employees until 1983. They were also not allowed to introduce any new benefits without the permission of the Minister of Employment, Labour and productivity. The guidelines allowed a five per cent markup in prices during the year with the approval of the Prices Board.
The companies that had more than a five per cent increase in prices in 1980 would not be allowed to increase the prices of their commodities. Imported heavy industrial machinery could be sold at a mark-up price of 25 per cent on CIF, while motor spare parts prices were limited to two per cent on CIF. No penalties were specified for failure to abide by the new guidelines.
In June 1981, the labour committee of the House of Representatives recommended a minimum monthly wage of 150 Naira. The Nigerian Senate voted for a N120 minimum monthly wage rate. The Senate justified this vote by pointing out that the Federal State had been forced to increase the minimum wage by 40 per cent in 1980. Based on the same argument, the House of Representative rejected the recommendation of its labour committee and voted for a minimum wage of N120.
A final decision of N125 monthly minimum wage was reached in the reconciliation meeting between both houses. The NLC insisted on its demand for a N300 monthly minimum wage. The Presidency, the National Assembly, the Judiciary and opposition political parties united around the NASS decision of N125 monthly minimum wages. The Federal government then unleashed a propaganda offensive that accused the NLC leadership of holding the nation hostage. The negative propaganda was so effective that the NLC was forced to accept the N125 monthly minimum wage.
In September, 1981, the Minimum Wage Bill became law. The law covered the public and private sectors of the working class, thereby undermining the income guidelines released earlier in the year. An increase in the standard of living of Nigerian workers is always a product of their autonomous self-activity; a product of their struggles as a class-for-itself.
Many industrial actions took place in the public and private sectors after the September 1981 minimum wage law. 366,323 workers engaged in strike actions in 1981, leading to an estimated 2,000,000 mandays lost. This excludes the number of striking workers and the mandays lost during the May general strike.
There are many lessons from the struggle for minimum wages in 1981 and the current struggle for a higher minimum wage. First, the negotiated minimum wage is determined by the balance of power between organised unionised labour (NLC and TUC) and the employers (federal and State governments in the public sector and private employers in the private sector).
Second, the employers demonstrate their power with a refusal to negotiate, a failure to honor past agreements, propaganda about limited revenue and low productivity, arrests and physical attacks on labour leaders, harassment, job loss, transfer of active rank and file workers and intensive negative propaganda about the impact of a higher wage bill on inflation and the national economy.
The workers demonstrate their power with a national strike. These are all part of the negotiation preambles that determine the balance of power during negotiation.
Third, the more united the workers are, the higher their power. The same is true for the employers as representatives of capital. Finally, the unity of the workers must go beyond the negotiation table to encompass rank and file workers, unwaged workers, the unemployed, women, students, peasants and the general masses of the Nigerian population.
The trade unions must capture the heart and minds of the Nigerian masses in order to force Nigerian capital to meet their demands for a higher monthly minimum wage.
Concluded.
Agbon can be reached via: izielenagbon@yahoo.com
Twitter:@izielenagbon
