By Salis Muhammad Moriki
Employer/Employee dispute can never be addressed one and for all, as the employee keeps demanding and the employer keeps rejecting. That is the practice since after the evolution and advancement of human development from the primitive, subsistence and trade by barter eras to this stage. In fact, what brought about the European industrial revolution of 1844 was the employee/employer relationship.
Virtually there's no government in the history of Nigeria's corporate existence that didn't experience fracas with the Labour unions. In fact, this continuous clash of interests between the government and Nigeria Labour Unions was what resulted into the creation of multiple trade union centres, through the amendment of the Trade Union act by former president Olusegun Obasanjo's administration to break the monopoly of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC. There are now three Labour centres: NLC, TUC, and ULC. All these, with a view to reducing the power and influence of the congress.
This uncordial relationship cuts across all the states of the federation. There's no year, one state Labour Union would not embark in industrial action, accusing the state government concerned for not honouring its agreement while in the other hand, the government blaming the union for being ingrate, self-centered and always in defence of workers even if engaged in corrupt and controversial practices.
Zamfara state has been recently in the news for many reasons. Obviously, its governor is the most widely criticised among his peers in the country, not because he's the worst performing governor, but, to me, he lacks competent PR management to publicise and defend his policies, and also enlighten the members of the public about the activities of the government. One of the recently discussed issue in the state is the labour and government misunderstanding, which led to industrial action carried out by the NLC/TUC in the state. The bone of contention is the minimum wage implementation, proper placement and other conditions of service the labour unions are demanding. The labour congress claimed that the government of Abdulazeez Yari Abubakar refuses to implement the minimum wage after it has been passed into law years back.
If I could remember, this fracas started immediately after the inception of Abdulazeez Abubakar Yari when he suspended the hundreds of workers employed by the immediate passed administration of Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi on the eve of leaving office. Of course, no government in Nigeria's context, north in particular, would survive such irregular employment of such number of staff on the first day of its life circle. That's why the then new administration of Zamfara state on inception, relieved the newly employed workers.
While it is a right for every employee to demand for his lawful renumeration, the previous governments have contributed to the problems the present administration is facing with labour unions in the state when they kept employing workers beyond the financial and economic capacity of the government just to satisfy their political aggrandisement without considering the negative economic repercussion to the system. This, has further deteriorated the situation to the extent that most of the states in the federation couldn't pay, not only minimum wage, but even the normal renumeration.
In Zamfara state, there's a total of twenty eight thousand (28, 000) workers on the pay roll of the state government, and investigation revealed that more than seven thousand out of this number are ghost workers and larger percentage redundant. Another compounding problem is the rising number of pensioners while the active civil servants number is not decreasing. Since 2011, nobody dies, retires or resigns from the service. This is an indication that retiring and dying workers are illegally replaced or their names retained in the payroll by unscrupulous civil servants, whom the labour unions are fighting for. Despite this trend, the state government has not, for once, unable to pay salary to this workers as well as pension to pensioners, in spite of the vicious economic recession the country found itself.
One may not be able to understand why the government has not been able to implement the widely pronounced minimum wage and able to pay salary and pension as at when due if he perceives the issue from a subjective as well as one-sided angle. For every government, not only Zamfara state, to be able to have smooth payment of salary, at the same time meet other constitutional obligations to the generality of its citizenry, it is pertinent to get rid of ghost, as well as unqualified workers. But Its attempt to independently verify the workforce was not supported by the labour unions directly and / or indirectly, according to many observers.
Government, being the sole employer of labour in the state, with very meager internally generated revenue, cannot implement the minimum wage fully without reducing more than half of its workforce. And the repercussion of downsizing the workforce will be negatively high as most people rely on government work to survive. I believe no patriotic indigene of Zamfara would pray for that exercise because of its disastrous implications. But verification to get rid of ghost workers is eminent and has to be supported by all and sundry, especially the labour unions in order the government to meet the demands of labour and in return, the workers reciprocate what's expected from them.
After the inception of the Yari's administration, a committee under professor Tukur Adamu Mafara was set up to look into the education sector of the state. The report of the committee indicated that one - third of teachers don't have the requisite qualification to teach, one - third have the qualification but cannot teach, while the remaining one-third have the qualification and can properly teach. Instead of disengaging the affected teachers, as Kaduna state government intends to do, the administration gave them time to acquire and undergo proper training without suspending their pay. This is what led to the establishment of teachers training centre. But up till now, the situation remains the same.
In comparison, states like Kaduna, with a population of more than 6 million, 23 local government areas and more than 17 billion annual internally generated revenue has a total number of 41,000 workers as its staff strength, made up of 23,000 state workers and 18,000 Local Government workers, excluding teachers. While Zamfara state with just a population of 3.2 million, 14 local governments and less than 4 billion annual internally generated revenue, has a staff strength of 44,000, made up of twenty eight thousand (28,000) state workers and sixteen thousand (16,000) local governments workers, excluding teachers. There are more than 5,000 people in the payroll of ministry for religious affairs alone, and the government house has more than 700 staff working there, more than the entire number of staff working in Kaduna North Local Government in Kaduna state. You can now compare and contrast the load and probability of salary payment. Due to the high debt profile accumulated by the past and present administrations in payment of staff salaries and other commitments, more than 2/3 of the bail outs released to the state from the Federal Government, was said to have been withheld by Banks as part of repayments of the back log of the loans.
It was widely publicised that there are only 23 medical doctors in Zamfara state. But during their tour in the state, the MNCH 2 team paid a courtesy call to the governor in which the leader, in the presence of commissioner of health, Chairman, Medical Management Board and other health ministry staff, made this complaint to him that in their available records, there are 35 medical doctors in the state and this sounds discouraging for medical sector. It was said that the governor was surprised and told the visiting team that in his record, he has 100 medical doctors in his payroll and the commissioner of health can bear him witness. What does this entail? The government pays for the service it doesn't receive. The government needs to fish out these unscrupulous elements pocketing millions of naira as salary of ghost workers with the help of labour unions in the state.
With this multi dimensional negative terrain, it will be absolutely unlikely for every government to operate smoothly, unless, with the assistance of the stakeholders, like Labour unions coming together to find a lasting solution. I expect the labour unions to join hands together with the government in order to see light at the end of the tunnel. It should be known that an employee's loyalty first lies with the employer, and he is obligated to ensure the survival of the work place, if he is to enjoy his rights and privileges. It is incumbent on all and sundry to ensure that only genuine workforce exist in the payroll of the state if the minimum wage is to be properly implemented.
-Salis Muhammad Moriki
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14/10/2017
