Nigerian Senate and NCWS Advocate for Domestic Workers' Inclusion in N70,000 Minimum Wage.

The National Council of Women Society (NCWS) and the Nigerian Senate pushed on Monday for domestic workers in Nigeria to be covered by the planned N70,000 minimum wage when it is implemented. This call was made at a public hearing on a draft proposing an Act to allow for the domestication and registration of domestic workers and employers in Nigeria before the National Assembly in Abuja.

The Senate Committee on Employment, Labour, and Productivity, chaired by Senator Diket Plang, arranged the public hearing on the measure proposed by Senator Babangida Hussaini, a member representing Jigawa North West.

During his remarks at the public hearing, Senator Osita Izunaso, representing Imo West, specifically called on the Senate to include domestic workers in the National Minimum Wage Scheme. He declared, “As a member of this committee, I feel strongly that part of the provisions to be included in this bill is to include the domestic workers, be it housemaids or servants, in the proposed N70,000 National Minimum wage law. As N70,000 is being planned to be the lowest wage for the lowest public workers, so should be the case for the least domestic workers. We are going to put it in the bill for implementation by all employers.”

However, Izunaso proposed changing the bill's intended purpose to register and protect domestic workers and their employers rather than just focusing on domestication and protection.

In a similar speech, Mrs. Geraldeen Etuk, the Acting National President of NCWS, spoke in favor of including domestic workers in the proposed National Minimum Wage legislation.

The bill's sponsor, Senator Babangida Hussaini, expressed his excitement about the bill's broad support from various stakeholders during an interview conducted on the event's fringes. However, he expressed doubts about the practical implementation of the bill's expanded scope, which includes domestic workers in the national minimum wage. “There is no point in making a law that cannot be implemented but I’m happy that the generality of stakeholders at the public hearing supported the bill and by extension, the proposed law.”

Earlier in the session, Senator Diket Plang, the chairman of the committee, stated that although an agency will undoubtedly be established to carry out the proposed law, the Ministry of Labour and Productivity will oversee the operation from the beginning.