David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal
The
House of Representatives clarified on Thursday that the National
Assembly did not remove labour matters from the Exclusive Legislative
List, contrary to reports making the rounds.
The
Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, made the clarification
amid threats by organised labour to embark on strike over the matter.
Ihedioha,
who is the Chairman, House Committee on Constitution Review, explained
that both the Senate and the House retained labour on the Exclusive List
when they passed the new amendments to the 1999 Constitution.
However,
it noted that it was the Senate that initially moved labour to the
Concurrent List in its own report, while the House retained it on the
Exclusive List.
Ihedioha added that
during the conference meeting of the two chambers on the amendments, the
House’ version was jointly adopted by the two chambers and later
passed.
Part of a statement he issued
to clarify the issue, read, “It has become necessary to clarify that
the Conference report of the Constitution Review Committee recently
adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives did not remove labour
from the Exclusive Legislative List.
“The Senate had earlier put labour on the Concurrent List but the House retained it in the Exclusive List.
“During
the Harmonisation of the Reports from the two chambers, the Conference
Committee adopted the House version and retained Labour on the Exclusive
List.
“Both the Senate and the House
of Representatives have now adopted the Conference Committee Report,
which retained Labour on the Exclusive Legislative List.
“We are at a loss as to where the false and misleading information on this matter emanated from.”
But
in spite of this, the organised labour has described the removal of the
Minimum Wage from the Exclusive List to the concurrent list by the
National Assembly as an act of treachery carried out by some governors
and their allies in the National Assembly.
The
General-Secretary of the NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, and the
President-General of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Bala Kaigama, warned
in two different statements on Thursday that labour would organise a
mass protest against the action which they said was condemnable and
unpatriotic.
Ozo-Eson stressed that the NLC would mobilise workers against the attempt to scrap the National Minimum Wage.
The
NLC secretary said that the organised labour was surprised by the
sudden decision to move against the National Minimum Wage after the
assurances from the Senate leadership.
Ozo-Eson
urged the National Assembly to reverse the decision in the interest of
Nigerians because of its implications for the country.
He
said that the decision to remove the national minimum wage was
“extremely dangerous and retrogressive” as it would empower employers to
fix their own minimum wage.
The NLC
secretary, who said that an emergency meeting of NEC had been called for
Monday on the issue, stated that the move against the national minimum
wage was a deliberate plot of some persons to truncate the current
electioneering process.
He said, “The
Nigeria Labour Congress condemns in strong terms the removal of wages
from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List by the National Assembly
in the ongoing fourth amendment exercise to the 1999 constitution.
“We
at the congress see the removal of wages from the Exclusive List as an
act of treachery masterminded by conservative governors and their
cohorts in the National Assembly, which will do the polity no good.
“We
wish to state in no uncertain terms that the Congress will mobilise its
members to resist this move to scrap the national minimum wage. We
recall that last year our national campaign and mobilization on this
subject matter was suspended at the instance of the leadership of the
Senate which promised to revisit the issue now that they “are better
informed…’
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