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Committee for a Workers' International

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Socialist Democracy September - October 2003

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the federal government have finally signed an agreement for a 12.5% wage increase. Though the NLC is supposed to represent all Nigerian workers, the state governments and private employers are saying that they are not bound by the agreement as they were not parties to the negotiations.

This new agreement can be traced to the agreement signed in May 2000 which provided for increases of 25% in May 2001 and 15% in May 2002. But this agreement was violated by the Obasanjo government which gave poor economic conditions as the reason why it could not increase wages.

Therefore, the increase of 12.5%, even if fully implemented, is a drop in the ocean compared to the agreement which the federal government signed in May 2000 and it is coming two years behind schedule. This is despite the annual double-digit inflation rate in the country caused by policies of deregulation, incessant fuel price increase, devaluation of the naira, etc. Thus the wage increase will have very little if any effect at all in improving the living standards of working class families. In fact, the 12.5% increment is not across the board; only the least paid workers will get 12.5% while others will get much less.

Also, the last increase in May 2000 was only implemented half-heartedly by both the private sector and many state governments. A large chunk of the working class was left out of the increase. It is possible that once again this scenario will be repeated with the new agreement. Already, the Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, has said that his government has no money to effect any wage increase.

Also the implementation of the last agreement was followed by the retrenchment of thousands of workers particularly civil servants. In Lagos State alone, about 15,000 workers were sacked.

It is therefore be clear that the mere signing of an agreement does not mean that it will be implemented by the employers of labour. As miserably and inadequate as the agreed increment is, it will take mass struggles to get the employers to pay them.

The trade unions and the NLC should therefore be prepared to organise mass actions against any recalcitrant employer of labour who refuses to abide the agreement. In addition, unlike how the trade unions and the NLC abandoned workers who lost their jobs in the course of implementation of the year 2000 agreement, labour should resist any attempt to sack workers because of the implementation of the new salary increase.

Socialist Democracy September - October 2003