By Aarẹ Henry O. Fajemirokun
Even before the covid-19 virus introduced itself via Wuhan in China, for years the federal government of Nigeria, state governments, local governments some companies have failed to pay their employees their fully contracted wages. Some employees are given half salary or none at all! The economic pain caused by the coronavirus continues with no end in sight. Millions are out of work and struggling to make ends meet.
But another group of workers is also falling through the cracks. With some companies, federal institutions in including state and local governments now have employees who are still working but not being paid what they are owed!
On investigation, the new complaint by the workers is that the problem of wage theft is dramatically increasing by their employers either not paying salaries at all or paying half salaries ( that is, if such salaries are paid at all!) during the pandemic, and the majority of the victims are those who can least afford it.
Salary Theft Definition
The definition of monthly salary thieving is a simple one: You do not receive the pay that the law or your contract entitles you to. Salary theft comes in many forms, which are if your employer:
- Fails to pay your basic salary.
- Fails to pay overtime
- Withholds your final paycheque when you leave a job
- Does not pay you your federal government, state or local government minimum wage
- Withholds all pay, including paid sick time, (which is mostly and almost none existent in Nigeria) except for multi-national companies.
- Or force employees to hand over a grant from federal government to employees by employer.
In short, when your employer, whether federal government, states, local government, some MSME’s hires you, they agree to comply with labour laws like local government, state, and federal government, companies regarding minimum wages, overtime pay ( which is no longer in existence in Nigeria), and any other pay that your employment agreement entitles you to.
But they all steal the employees money by not paying them what is due them for months on end! This is rampant amongst State governments in Nigeria! The state governments also steal local governments’ allocations directly from the federal government.
In a case of outright wages theft in Akwa Ibom state, an hotel’s management drafted an “agreement” with its employees to hand over part of the employees’ grant meant to mitigate against loss of employment in MSMEs, to the hotel management. The reason given by the owner of the hotel to deduct money from the grantees account is based on a spurious agreement which is not recognised by the state or federal government law!
A new report from the Ondo state government says workers will be on half salaries, which really means they will not be paid their wages. Wage theft is a long standing problem in Nigeria. The pandemic is likely aggravating wage theft to become more widespread all over the country. A report examines the effect of wage theft concluded that it is one of the fundamental reasons there are monumental widespread corruption ongoing in the country. From the police, to all strata of civil servants in all institutions in the country stealing, asking for or offering bribes to get the basic services is the norm. Before the advent of coronavirus, wage stealing and corruption has been symbiotic in the country from 1979 till now! It shows as well how wage theft dramatically increased at the same time that unemployment was rapidly rising.
The unemployment rate has never been at a low rate instead it has increased dangerously as the pandemic-related job losses, speculatively has caused it to skyrocket across board .
The NBS further found that unmployment has increased year-on-year during 2020 pandemic with an 8.88 % in the Q3 quarter, and unemployment rate in Q3 of 2018 was 23.18%. That is the available job statistics and in 3 years curiously, it has not been updated since! Ostensibly, government workers, (civil servants) especially in the states and local governments are usually victims of a minimum wage violation especially now.
It is also predicted that jobs where workers would be the most likely victims of wage theft this time around are:
- Government: federal government workers, state government workers , and local government workers.
- MSME workers
- Hospitality workers
- Housemaids, stewards, drivers etc.
- Transportation and warehouse workers.
Why Is This Happening
It is obvious that many businesses are struggling to make the same amount of money that they did before the pandemic. Most government ministries federal, state and local governments are not able to pay salaries as at when due. Workers are owed many months’ salary. The reason is that Nigeria depends on oil revenues of which prices have collapsed and the non-oil export income stream has been inadequate to compensate for the shortfall income from oil exports that is 90% of Nigeria’s revenue. Therefore, there is not enough money to go around.
However, that does not excuse short-changing employees.
Many employers do so because employees in the most at-risk professions lack the leverage to change jobs, especially now when it is difficult to find work. Workers who do not have knowledge economy skills are especially vulnerable.
In short, employers are confident that workers are too scared to complain or do anything about nonpayment of salaries.
What Can You Do About Wage Theft?
It is speculated and imagined that you may be surprised to learn that wage theft costs victims far more than the victims of all other types of theft including armed robbery, burglary, kidnapping and farmer/ herdsmen conflict combined. Unlike robbery, where the police get involved, wage theft complaints are often investigated through the trade unions but the trade unions are compromised more often than not when they go through the motion of confronting various governments in the country and private employers on wage and theft. Employers do not face any sanctions or penalties; because there is no provision in federal or state law to prescribe for criminal consequences for wage theft!
If you have been a victim of wage theft, pension theft in Nigeria, the most important thing to know in a lawful society that an employer cannot and should not retaliate against you for complaining.
If they do so in Nigeria, it is not clear if the law will be on your side.
If a complaint to your employer does not yield any headway complain to the union if your company has one. Or employees band together ( because of legal costs) and consider talking to an employment lawyer about employee rights under the law.
