Return of More Nightmares For Workers
Sandra Uchendu, 31 graduated seven years ago at 24 years and did not get a job until this year. Her salary as a graduate of Business Administration was only N90,000 excluding tax.
By Ogheneyovwe Edomi
Even with the minimum wage put at N70,000, her company, a private firm has refused to add to her monthly salary. Since the price of fuel went higher after the recent 10 – day hunger protests, she has stopped work. Lamenting her ordeal she told this reporter that she spends N50,000 monthly out of the less than N90,000 monthly salary when tax is removed in transportation alone and N25,000 on feeding monthly at the work place. She said she virtually eat twice daily, morning and night, and barely have enough for her up keeps.
The Lamentation of Uchendu represents what many workers in both private and public organizations go through; across Nigeria.Gbanga Olabisi (not real name) a civil servant and father of 6 children is one person who will hardly be able to wipe the effect of the increase in fuel price from his memory. He could hardly take care of his wife, six children and aged mother, so he has to resort to driving Okada after close of work, even then he told this reporter that he has not been able to renew his annual rent at his lugbe residence in Abuja, the federal capital territory.
Most workers now hinge their inability to meet up with their responsibilities to the inability of the current wages of workers to carry them through owning to the high cost of things including transportation.
The decline in the purchasing power of the Naira owning to the huge import dependence of the country and inability of most state governments to pay living wages continue to make workers to live in pains.
The federal government last month rolled out punishment for employers who refused to pay the minimum wage which includes legal penalties and jail term, a development that is aimed at addressing the pressing economic challenge in Nigeria and to ensure that no worker – public or private earns less than the approved minimum wage. According to Kachollom Daju, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and employment” adherence to the minimum wage is now legally required, with strict enforcement measure put in place. He thus urged private employment agencies to incorporate the minimum wage into their contract to protect workers. Meanwhile president of Employers Association for Private Employment Agencies of Nigeria, Olafemi Ogunlowo has called for clarification on whether the N70,000 figure is the net gross. This according to Ogunlowo is to avoid confusion.
Generally workers at different levels are furious because of the high cost of living and there is high level of animosity against employers both in the public or private sectors. To address the perceived insensitivity on the part of Employers, some State governments now allow civil servants to arrange to come to work three times a week. In some private organization staff are now equally allowed to operate from home and only come to office once in a while.
This however did not prevent most workers from going to the 10days hunger protests that took place in major parts of the country last August.
Curiously, the harrowing experience of workers became even worse after the hunger strike and the price of fuel went higher a development that skyrocketed the cost of transportation. This according to Olabisi Alaka is causing many workers to die instalmentally because of daily stress as most workers secure accommodation far from their work place on account of poor renumerations, thus forcing many to leave for the work place as early as 4am in places like Lagos where traffic snail could stretch on for hours and workers may not get to office until 9am.
In Abuja, most workers do not get to the office until 10am because many live in the outskirts of Abuja and Nasarawa state where they spend huge time and money before they get to their work place. This take a toll on the workers and many who spoke to this magazine reporter from Asaba the Delta State capital to Lagos and Abuja were full of laments.
Even in Ibadan, Oyo state where transport cost is relatively fair, and price of foodstuffs are considered cheaper, their problem are also compounded by high cost of electricity, gas and so on.
How workers would overcome the pains remain to be seen.