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It is also a period where Nigeria is battling rising inflation, forex crisis, economic hardship and high cost of living occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, which attracted protests in parts of the country.
According to the labour ministry, the reasons for the retrenchments were mainly due to economic factors, the transfer of businesses as well as re-organisational or operational reasons during the four quarters.
To worsen the matter, presently, the crises of poverty and insecurity are biting harder, and not just on the working poor.
Even the lower middle class who could once afford domestic flights now have to pay double flight costs because of the increase in the price of jet fuel or face the peril of Nigerian roads.
The celebrations come at a time the living standards of the overwhelming majority of workers in the country have plummeted to very low levels, owing to paltry monthly salaries. As a results, workers and labour leaders across the various sectors of the economy are lamenting their fortunes and fearing a gloomy future for the Nigerian workers, which they said calls for sober reflections:
Nigerian workers are exploited and marginalised- Gertrude Adenekan
For a Retired Director, Lagos Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mrs Gertrude Adenekan, “Nigerian workers are exploited and marginalized especially in the Private Sector.
I believe many Officials of the Labour Parties are politicians. Many are in it for selfish personal reasons. They eat from both sides of the fence (contributions of workers and welfare packages from the management). This celebration also calls for workers to be honest and hard working as well as the promotion of good governance in the country.
The plight of workers in Nigeria is pathetic, awful and disdainful – Media practitioner.
A media practitioner based in Lagos with one of the foremost National Dailies, who pleaded anonymity, bemoaned the state of most Nigerian workers in the country, stressing that, there was nothing significant for workers to celebrate in Nigeria.
According to him, “The plight of workers in Nigeria is pathetic, awful and disdainful. The worker is not counted as a human being but as a beast of burden, especially the workers at the lower stratum. Up till now some states have not implemented the thirty thousand minimum wage not to talk of the six hundred and fifteen thousand propsed by the Nigeria Labour congress, so there is nothing to celebrate by workers in Nigeria, unless the usual Lamentations.
“The future of Nigerian workers, if I may say; there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Administration after administration, it has remained the same.”
Minimum wages remain the same while inflation is increasing exponentially – Arowosafe
For Mr Samuel Arowosafe, a communication specialist, Nigerian workers need not celebrate the May 1st holiday set aside for the celebrations of workers.
Arowosafe said the harsh economic situation with exponential increase of inflation as well as static income and growing purchasing power in the country, calls for a serious concern.
According to him, “The plight of workers is in a state of decline, moving from bad to worse. There's really nothing to celebrate about worker’s day. Minimum wage remains the same while inflation is increasing exponentially with static income, growing the purchasing rate. No end seems to be in sight; the situation is becoming unpalatable; the government really needs to do something about it.
“The Labour Union is trying its best but I think they can do more. If the leadership can't pressurize the government to increase minimum wage, there should be some sort of incentives and subsidies particularly for workers to cushion the effect of inflation. Purchasing power has reduced drastically; the Labour Union can do better.
“If we continue this way, there might be no future. Like I said, there's no end in sight. The government should improve welfare packages for workers, and standard of living should be made better; this will go a long way to boost the morale of the workers,” he said.
Burden of everyday inflation is heavy on salary earners - Dr Akinwalere
Lecturer, Mass Communication Department, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Dr Ifedayo Akinwalere, noted that the burdens of everyday inflation is huge on salary earners.
He said, “The future of Nigeria workers is a bright one but the burden of inflation is heavy on salary earners in the society. However, everything should not be an increase in payment/salary. There are other provisions such as health, housing, insurance, transportation, and pension and among others that should be made available and well managed for the comfort of workers in our society. It is high time the Labour party woke up to its ultimate responsibility.”
Nigeria’s economic situation biggest concern for worker –Ebubechukwu
An Environmentalist, Ezeukoh Ebubechukwu attributed economic situation as the biggest concern affecting workers.
According to him, “The economic situation has been the biggest concern for workers. While prices of goods and services have exponentially increased, the cost of transportation to work has also increased while our salary has either remained stagnant or moved slightly.”
Ebubechukwu who called on labour party to rise to their responsibilities, said “The Labout party is not doing enough to ease the plight of workers. We are going through a lot as workers and there so many injustices going on at workplace like unjust laying off of workers, wrongful termination, and unhealthy working environment. All these are areas we need the labour party to help us but we are yet to see meaningful result.
“As it stands, our future as workers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is bleak. Neglect by the government, our minimum wage is meager compare to what we have on ground now. Even the meager minimum wage cannot purchase a bag of rice, so where are we going? Hence, we appeal for good leadership and inclusive governance.”
Earlier, Labour union leaders across the country identified unemployment, galloping inflation in the economy, devaluation of naira, low wages, insecurity, rising standard of living, poor state of the education and the falling healthcare sector as indices that had affected and still affecting the Nigerian workers.
In a pre-May Day symposium, organised by the Lagos State Council of the NLC, and the TUC, Chairman, TUC, Gbenga Ekundayo, said the theme and this year’s celebration was about how labour could galvanise the common man to get involved and elect good leaders that could move the country forward.
He said, “The theme is how can labour get involved in the political space so that we can have good governance and control the narrative of who gets into which office, so that we can be sure that those people there are best to give us the development we desire, through the provision of water, good roads, rail networks, good waterways for alternative transportation, provision of constant electricity support and adequate healthcare, among others.”
He advised workers to be more committed and steadfast.
On the global stage, workers’ unions, under the aegis of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), called for workplace health and safety.
As solution to avert the unfavourable conditions of workers, stakeholders and experts desirous of a better economy, called on the government to cut the cost of governance and deal with corruption stressing that government can do a lot to support the working class citizens, by increasing the minimum wage, ensuring that salaries are paid promptly, pension is paid promptly, financial obligations are met as and when due.
Welfare packages; housing schemes, health insurance accessibility, should be improved to curb excessive inflation among others and ultimately create an enabling environment for sustainable living.
The government priority in any society should be adequate security. Workers need security of lives and property and job security during their service year and after. Proper management of pension funds is also very important. Government should be ready to provide loans to workers who want to retire early/resign early to start their own businesses.
Some workers are well gifted to run businesses. Savings from their salaries in most cases are not enough for them to have confidence to retire early in life and face their dreams. Provision of adequate loans and other incentives by the government to workers that wish to retire early and go into businesses will go a long way to boost the economy. When certain percentages of workers resign/retire voluntarily to invest in the economy, the rate of unemployment will be reduced gradually.
