As at today, while no fewer than 20 states has begun the payment or indicated their readiness to pay the new national minimum wage for public workers following the signing of the N70, 000 minimum wage into law by President Bola Tinubu in August 2024, nothing appears to be coming from the private sector, at least publicly.
However, the Textile sector may have opened up the floodgate for the private sector as Organized Labour in the industry, under the aegis of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, and the employers’ body on the platform of Nigeria Textile, Garment and Tailoring Employers Association, NTGTEA, have agreed on a 25 per cent pay rise for the least paid workers in the sector, taking their take home pay to N75,000.
It was gathered that the NUTGTWN and NTGTEA met under the umbrella of the National Joint Industrial Negotiating Council, NJINC, in Lagos on October 21, 2024 to review the existing collective bargaining agreement, CBA, in the sector.
According to sources, the meeting was the 45th of the NJINC since its inauguration in 1979.
The sectoral CBA has a two-year duration with a re-opener clause that states that “where there are compelling economic circumstances and or Government pronouncement on wages while the agreement still subsists necessitating a re-visitation of the agreement, both parties shall meet to discuss the specific item.”
It was gathered that the last review of the collective agreement was in 2022.
However, a statement by President and General Secretary of NUTGTWN, Peters Godonu and Ali Baba, informed that “following the approval of a wage award for government workers in 2023 to cushion the effect of removal of subsidy on petrol, the union also negotiated a wage award for workers in the sector effective November 2023 pending the review of the subsisting collective bargaining agreement.
“Notwithstanding the current economic challenges and the peculiar operating challenges of the textile sub-sector, it is remarkable that the union sustained the struggle for a living wage for members with the signing of the new collective agreement with employers. The new agreement significantly raised wage rate in the industry by 25 per cent and above the national minimum wage. Some of the items reviewed include; basic salary, medical allowance, transport allowance, food subsidy, night shift allowance and out-of-station allowance. The effective date of the agreement is 1st August, 2024 and a duration of 24 months.
“The NJINC also re-iterated its commitment to a healthy and safe workplace free from violence and harassment as it concludes discussion to integrate relevant clauses of the ILO Conventions 190 and 155 in the sectoral collective bargaining agreement. This year’s negotiation and its successful outcome is the result of focused leadership, support from our members and the co-operation of the employers.
“We thank all our members for the support. We also commend the textile management and employers represented by the Nigerian Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association, NTGTEA for keeping the faith in spite of the challenges.
“What is newsworthy about this agreement and indeed the previous agreements, is the fact that in 45 years of establishment of the NJINC, it has signed well over 45 collective agreements without recording a single strike action in the sector.
Textile industry still facing daunting challenges
“The lesson here is that where there is functioning collective bargaining machinery and there is willingness on the part of all parties, wage negotiation needed not be acrimonious and dysfunctional.
“We thank all our partners namely; Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, IndustriALL Global Union, International Labour Organisation, ILO, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, FES among others who have helped us to sustain a robust social dialogue mechanism in a depressed sector.
“However, we will like to note that for this agreement to be sustainable, government must initiate and implement series of industrial policies that will urgently protect the existing jobs in the sector. In spite of the efforts to revive the textile industry, the sector is still confronted with many challenges that included high-cost of production that has rendered its products non-competitive; unrestrained smuggling and counterfeiting of Made-in-Nigeria textiles; poor patronage in spite of FG’s Executive Order 003, inadequate and costly electricity supply, poor infrastructure, high taxation and interest rates and the depreciating value of the naira.
We call on the government to do more to provide the enabling environment for the revival of the textile industry in Nigeria and manufacturing activities in general.e