WEDNESDAY 1st of May is Workers’ Day; a public holiday set aside to celebrate the dignity of labour as a critical factor of development. This year’s May Day in Nigeria assumes triple importance of history, democratic context and relevance.
This year’s May Day is the first since the inauguration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What is then the state of labour-government relations since May 29th 2023? Globally, labour-government relations are characterised by contestation and accommodation.
2024 May Day marks the 44th anniversary of workers’ Day as a national public holiday in Nigeria. There was once a democratic 2nd Republic with competitive ideological politics led by popular parties and politicians. In 1980, the late governors; Abubakar Rimi and Alhaji Balarabe Musa, of Kano and Kaduna states respectively, on the platform of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) declared May 1st a public holiday in show of solidarity with the demand of NLC led by its founding president, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu.
A year later, determined not to be outperformed by the radical progressive left PRP, the conservative President Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) declared May 1 a national public holiday in appreciation of the dignity of labour.
Of course, globally, the observance of May Day is long dated; almost a century and half. In 1886, Chicago police opened fire killing several demonstrating workers demanding for 8-hour working day. Subsequent workers’ protest, led to the death of some seven policemen. Police, without evidence, accused eight leaders of the Chicago workers’ movement of killing the police, convicted all.
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Four of the workers’ leaders were executed, three were given life imprisonment! And that was a ‘democratic’ America which had proclaimed a libertarian constitution but without due respect for workers’ rights.
The 2023 October 2nd 15-point Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between organised Labour and government following the removal of fuel subsidy is a model framework for managing industrial relations at times of economic crisis. Since then that singular historic agreement is being implemented to the benefits of all the parties. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had commendably implemented the agreement on payment of the federal government wage award of N35,000 for all federal employees, pending when a new national minimum wage is implemented.
The International Workers’ Congress in Paris declared May 1, 1889, as International Workers Day in memory of the historic struggle of the Chicago workers! With the exception of the global lockdown occasioned by Covid-19 in 2020, a century long May Day celebration had offered open global platforms for working men and women to demand for fairer distribution of global wealth between labour and owners of means of production. Even at that in 2020, there was a “virtual celebration” of dignity of labour.
I recall that both IBB and Abacha military regimes dissolved the Executive Councils of the NLC in 1988 and 1995 respectively. But industrial affiliate unions, nonetheless, observed Labour Day despite the intimidation and harassment. Which then explains the democratic context of May Day celebrations over the years.
It is democratic dispensation that proclaimed May Day in Nigeria. It is democracy that constitutionally allows for freedom of association, rights to unfettered organising, the trademarks of trade union movement. Certainly, organised labour must join democratic forces to deepen democracy which with all its dramatized shortcomings, constitutionally guarantees trade and human rights. 2024 May Day is also undoubtedly a celebration of 25 years of uninterrupted democratic dispensation in Nigeria since 1999.
This year’s May Day is the first since the inauguration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What is then the state of labour-government relations since May 29th 2023? Globally, labour-government relations are characterised by contestation and accommodation.
With “four strikes in 9 months”, according to the President, Nigeria is certainly not short of policy contestations since President Bola Tinubu initiated the twin policies of inevitable fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange market reforms which had fuelled inflation, currency devaluation, high cost of living and challenged industrial relations more than ever before.
However, there is also a remarkable and commendable policy accommodation and cooperation under Asiwaju-led administration which has fostered relative industrial peace in the wake of daunting current economic challenges. Indeed, there is a consensus among the stakeholders in the labour market that notwithstanding the impact of inevitable economic reforms on employment relations, organised labour, employers and governments had commendably taken the advantage of the country’s social dialogue and dispute resolution mechanism to minimise disputes and maintain relative harmony.
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Beyond legitimate protests and strikes, trade unions, private employers of labour organised in Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and government officials have signed thousands of agreements after worthy negotiations, compromises, workplace dispute prevention and dispute resolutions. Based on data available at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the mission is to promote decent work, there has been relative industrial peace and industrial harmony. After open policy contestation as we have seen on subsidy removal, it eventually got resolved in policy accommodation between labour and government. Which means that trade unions’ struggles invariably compliment reforms for better inclusive outcomes.
For this clause to be realisable, the federal government must rethink all the inevitable reforms to make them more inclusive and participatory of labour. The wealth of labour is better harnessed when labour is mainstreamed as a critical factor of development. Do not marginalise labour that creates wealth. There is also the need for “A Just Transition” in managing reforms. Gradualist/spacing/soft/strategic approach to reforms must replace “big-bang”/“tough”/“shock therapy”/“immediate effect” of undemocratic past military regimes.
The 2023 October 2nd 15-point Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between organised Labour and government following the removal of fuel subsidy is a model framework for managing industrial relations at times of economic crisis. Since then that singular historic agreement is being implemented to the benefits of all the parties. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had commendably implemented the agreement on payment of the federal government wage award of N35,000 for all federal employees, pending when a new national minimum wage is implemented.
President Tinubu also acted as a statesman in line with his labour-friendly disposition out of the federal box when he urged state governments to give same wage awards to their employees. The most significant is the inauguration of an inclusive 37-member tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee in line with the president’s Renewed Hope Agenda on Tuesday, January 30, 2024. Negotiation is already ongoing, which when concluded will usher in the 6th national minimum wage since 1981.
Again, the point cannot be overstated: all national minimum wage adjustments took place under democratic governments. (1981: President Shehu Shagari; 2000: President Olusegun Obasanjo; 2011: President Goodluck Jonathan; 2018: President Muhammadu Buhari; and 2024: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu).
Minimum wage tripartite negotiations often involve bargaining, social dialogue and compromises on affordability and ability to pay by employers and employees alike. Negotiation is a democratic value that thrives where there’s constitutionalism, freedoms of association and assembly. Again, only democratic dispensation guarantees unfettered negotiations. There are enough quotable quotes on minimum and living pay attributable to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu more than any President. Indeed, every labour market observer agrees that 2024 minimum wage will promote ease of work and living among Nigeria’s working poor.
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In his 2023 May Day speech, Tinubu disclosed that: “In the Nigeria I shall have the honour and privilege to lead from May 29, workers will have more than a minimum wage. You will have a living wage to have a decent life and provide for your families.” Organised labour certainly has a worthy ally in President Tinubu for a new National Minimum Living wage. Also worthy of mention of the October agreement is the clause that says: “All parties commit to henceforth abide by the dictates of social dialogue in all our future engagements”.
For this clause to be realisable, the federal government must rethink all the inevitable reforms to make them more inclusive and participatory of labour. The wealth of labour is better harnessed when labour is mainstreamed as a critical factor of development. Do not marginalise labour that creates wealth. There is also the need for “A Just Transition” in managing reforms. Gradualist/spacing/soft/strategic approach to reforms must replace “big-bang”/“tough”/“shock therapy”/“immediate effect” of undemocratic past military regimes.
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Conversely organised labour should rethink approaches to contestation. Certainly, contestation is inevitable if workers’ interests is to be protected. But contestation must be complimented by proactive insistence to be at policy formulation tables. Government, for instance, must expand the new Presidential Economic Advisory Council to include labour, employers of labour and not just business people and bankers, most who are permanently hunted by conflicts of bossiness interest.
All the above call for constant improved labour education on labour management relations, which is the mandate of Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS).
Happy 2024 May Day!
Comrade Aremu mni is the Director General, Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin.
