ABSTRACT

Abstract

Engagement necessitates compensation in forms of wages and salaries is ideally expected to be an outcome of negotiation between employer and employee. In Nigeria, compensation for labour engagement has always been a source of controversy especially for public sector workers; which has resulted into industrial strikes in the past. In both pre- and post-independence Nigeria, wage determination was burdened on ad-hoc wage commissions whose reports and recommendations have always led to improved financial compensation for workers. This paper traces the history of wage determination in Nigeria to the Hunts Commission of 1934 and reviews the roles played by various wage commissions in determining wages and salaries of public sector workers with its ripple effects on compensation in the private sector. The major motivation for this historical review is to draw insights and lessons of experience that can assist in putting an end to the constant agitations by trade unions for improved pay, leading to the periodical setting up of ad-hoc wages commissions and recommendations of such commissions, leading to increase in salaries of the public sector workers. To break this consistent pattern discernible from the review and properly align wage determination with cost of living, the paper recommends that periodical wage negotiations between workers and government should be entrenched in the constitution with specific milestones for such negotiations to enhance the employee engagement and improve productivity. Employee involvement program is recommended to be integrated into the constitution and other labour laws to empower employees to be part of decision-making process in the workplace.

Keywords: compensation, engagement, national minimum wage, Nigeria, wages.