Before they went on their annual recess this year, the Senate chamber of the National Assembly had taken a progressive step towards the decentralisation of Labour matters. They voted in the ongoing constitution amendment to remove Labour issues from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List.

What this means is that if the amendment goes through, matters such as salaries and wages will be legislated for both the federal and state governments.

The Federal Government can discuss and agree with its workers to fix a minimum wage while workers of the state governments and the private sector can discuss their wages based on prevailing economic realities or peculiarities.

States that cannot afford to pay what the Federal Government offers its workers can explore what is feasible, as opposed to the current situation where Labour forces every public sector employer to pay whatever the Federal Government agrees with workers’ unions in their payroll.

On the other hand, states that are buoyant (such as big oil derivation-earning states and highly industrialised states that collect huge internally generated tax revenues) can even pay more than the Federal Government if the situation warrants it.

President Goodluck Jonathan (2nd right), with Labour leaders and Labour minister, Emeka Wogu (left)

On Tuesday, September 17, 2013, when the Senate returned from it recess, Labour went on warpath and invaded the grounds of the National Assembly. They even came with their former President, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is now the Governor of Edo State.

The Labour movement, especially the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, under the presidency of Waheed Omar, has entered into a cozy symbiotic relationship with Governor Oshiomhole. When the Comrade was gunning for re-election, the NLC openly campaigned for him in EdoState. And to add some bite to their agitation against Labour decentralisation, they enlisted him.

The President of the Senate, David Mark, apparently intimidated, left the business of the “upper chamber” to his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, and went to address the workers’ unions. He promised that the Senate would revisit the issue. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the Senate will likely take two steps backward after taking this crucial first step towards reducing the overload the Centre has been carrying.

One of the principal objectives of the nation’s constitutional reforms is to devolve more powers from the Centre to the federating units. This will gradually reduce the overweening powers of the Federal Government and rid it of its centralised command form of federalism foisted by military rule. It will not only make governance more effective, it will also reduce the cost of governance and give the Nigerian people more opportunities to participate more effectively in government.

The decentralisation of Labour matters will also reduce the spate of strikes in the system, particularly the so called “sympathy” strikes, which cripple sectors that currently have no issues with their employers.

One of the abominable fallouts of centralised Labour matters is the perennial spate of ill-motivated strikes by the Academic Staff of Nigerian Universities, ASUU.

Since ASUU signed an agreement with the Federal Government in 2009, hardly has a year passed without their returning to strikes to force the government to fulfill terms of the agreement, and lecturers of state-owned universities that have no business with the Federal Government always join.

The uglier side of this situation is that this year, the Federal Government offered a total of N130 billion out of the N850 billion ASUU is demanding but ASUU insisted that unless the Federal Government honours the agreement that would cost three trillion naira it would not return to work! Meanwhile, the strike has entered it fourth month.

There is no substitute to decentralisation of Labour issues. The current arrangement is too disruptive and unsustainable. Labour unions should be able to sit down with their employers, look at the revenue accruing to the specific entity and decide what is reasonable and economically sound as wages and entitlements of workers.

Labour unions at every level have the capacity to force unwilling and unreasonable employers to the negotiation table. Workers do not need to go on a nationwide strike to force employers in a state or locality to meet their demands. It is a gross abuse of power and a weapon now frequently used against the interests of the wider society.

Our quest for devolution of powers must be total and all embracing. Some of these Labour leaders who tag themselves “progressives” go into a political forum to canvass for devolution of powers from the Centre to the peripheries only to walk across the street into a Labour forum to ask for centralisation of Labour matters. Labour must come on board in our quest for true federalism.

Why must Labour insist on pay parity between federal and state employees when such does not exist in the private sector? Why must workers in ZamfaraState be adamant on pay parity with those of the Lagos civil service when revenue levels and cost of living are not the same? The argument that we all buy from the same market does not wash. Oil sector workers earn more than most of their peers in the private sector and yet the latter have not to shut down the economy in the name of pay parity.

We must focus on the broad imperatives of the constitutional reforms. Apart from devolution of powers, we must tackle the high cost of governance, whereby about 75 per cent of our budgets at state and federal levels are devoted to personnel costs of a tiny minority of public sector workers.

It leaves very little for capital projects that will boost the activities of the vast majority of private sector workers and self-employed people. This tyranny of the minority which Labour leaders are promoting will never allow the economy to grow. It is only when a much larger chunk of public resources are spent on capital projects that the economy will expand and more jobs will be created. The march towards decentralisation of Labour matters must proceed apace.

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Read this article in the Vanguard Newspapers