May Day: Tears for workers amid COVID-19
Today’s Workers’ Day celebration will witness no mass gathering, glamour or fanfare. No thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.For the first time in about a century, workers around the world will not celebrate May Day on the streets. No thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from stopping their parade, the pandemic has also endangered them. Millions of jobs are believed to have been lost since the pandemic began its onslaught on the human race.
Other state governors are yet to decide or announce their next line of action as regards workers in their state. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, some state governors were finding it difficult to implement the N30, 000 minimum wage signed into law last year by President Muhammadu Buhari. The ILO said more than 436 million enterprises face high risks of serious disruption, saying that these enterprises are operating in the hardest-hit economic sectors, including some 232 million in wholesale and retail, 111 million in manufacturing, 51 million in accommodation and food services, and 42 million in real estate and other business activities.
The NLC has directed its affiliates and state councils to resist any salary deduction on the account of COVID-19. Instead, labour urged employers to show solidarity by ensuring job protection for workers as the country continues to battle the spread of coronavirus.According to NLC, this critical period of coronavirus pandemic was not the time for employers of labour to stop workers’ salaries or enforce pay cut.
“We reassure our workers that our priority in these trying times remains the cautious, gradual, evidence-led and smart restart of the economy so that our workers can go back to work. We are also completely committed to the recovery of lost jobs, protection of wages, support for income and livelihood and improvement of Nigeria’s social safety net.”
He reassured the workers that their priority in these trying times remains the cautious, gradual, evidence-led and smart restart of the economy so that they can go back to work. “This is very dicey. As much as it is important to keep many Nigerians from dying in the hands of Coronavirus, loss of income and the accompanying destitution can also be a pathfinder for numerous other sicknesses and deaths,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund recently projected that the Nigerian economy would shrink by 3.4 per cent this year, worse than the global average projected at three per cent. The outbreak of the deadly virus in Nigeria had resulted in the lockdown of many states in Nigeria, a development that has paralyzed economic activities.
These developments have heightened fears about the ability of the government to finance the N30,000 new minimum wage. Based on the financial assumptions underpinning the 2020 Appropriation Act, monthly FAAC disbursements to the federal and state governments was projected at N888.5 billion. For instance, the Gombe State Government last month declared that it had suspended the implementation of the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage.
They said projected declines in revenues as occasioned by the drop in crude oil prices constrain the government’s ability to meet its commitments in 2020. “It is a painful thing that the price of oil crashed in the global market. Labour has always called for diversification of the economy but the craze for oil money blindfolded the powers that be. Nobody knew this would happen but it did. The government must pick the lessons and run the country with the fear of God.”
“I am aware that negotiations had either been concluded or at the point of conclusion in many states as of the end of December 2019. Any downward adjustment in the budget must not be at the expense of workers’ salaries which must be prioritised.” However, he said rather than using this as an excuse, they should go into an aggressive internally generated revenue drive.
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