BY CHINEDU EKWUNO
Wage is a payment to someone who works in the factory hence in accounting and book keeping practice, it is added to purchases in the trading account to determine gross profit while salary is meant for non-manual work or payment to someone who works in the office such as clerk, secretary, accountant etc.
Salary is usually charged to the debit side of profit and loss account as one of the expenses to be deducted from the gross profit in order to determine net profit.
Wage is necessarily for a definite amount of work measured by time and piece so the if less than full week is worked a proportionate deduction from the weekly wage will be taken, whereas a salary earner do not suffer such deduction.
The fixing of minimum wage in Nigeria usually takes two dimensions. In public sector, government does not really have a collective bargaining machinery rather it sets up commission for review of minimum wage and condition of service.
Such commission include Gorsuch (1954), Mbanefo (1959), Morgan (1964); Elwood (1966); Adebo (1971) and Udoji (1974).Out of these review commissions only Grouch and Udoji had major impact in the civil service.
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Others can be described as mere minimum wage review commission. In case there is need for collective bargaining between government and labour union; it is the responsibility of the Minister of labor to negotiate with the union.
The establishment of such commission for review of minimum wage in the public sector is the second type of relationship man enters into with his follow man according to Karl Marx (1818-1883) who described it “as social relations”.
This type of relationship according to Marx determines who owns and controls the major means of production.
Consequently, classes emerged in the society. The first class to emerge is the capitalist class that appropriates the surplus value (bourgeoisies) while the second class is the expropriated class (proliterates) that merely subsists in providing labour power.
It is instructive to note that the impact of Udoji Commission of 1974 is that it exposed the weaknesses of an embattled civil service tottering under the tremendously expanded functions and responsibilities; and pointed the direction of future development when it recommended the adoption of management by objectives and subsequent professionalisation of the civil service.
The recommended management by objectives implies joint participation in the setting of goals and target dates as well as the evaluation of the performance in relation to the established objective by the managers and subordinates.
It was applied by Paul in Acts 15:36, and was reintroduced by Peter Drucker in early 1950’s because it contradicts classical model where objectives flow from top of the hierarchy to down bottom line of the organization.
It is a means through which the organization can achieve its goals. It involves top executives and manager in determining and setting of organisational goals through the joint determination of area of responsibility.
It enables employee productivity to increase especially in the joint setting of objectives.
It is also a tool for increasing motivation because its practice tends to facilitate the existence of “co-ownership” in the organization. It usually completes the process of professionalisation.
It enables managers to carry subordinates along. It should be noted that effective planning most of the time benefits from management by objectives approach.
Another impact of such increase in minimum wage is that workers were left with starvation wages three or four months after the said increase in minimum wage.
This is because the increase in minimum wage is simultaneously followed by increase in pump price of petroleum products and increase in taxes.
Most of the time the commission does not consider price index and high rate of inflation or cost of living before fixing minimum wage.
It merely provides a slight marginal increase in minimum wage which is not commensurate with the present trend of things in the society.
The meager or starvation wage paid to civil servants has affected Nigeria public administration quite because it has made incumbents of position to busy themselves with incredible manipulation and misappropriation of resources of their office and neglect the role aspect which is indeed the crucial one.
Obviously, what has been institutionalized is the tendency for us to regard government work and indeed, the entire public service as no man’s work, or worse still as the white man’s job.
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In that perception he is a hero who could defraud the government successfully and distribute the loot to his kiths and kin.
Public treasury must be emptied to ensure personal aggrandizement; government building must be burnt down to cover up fraud. There pervades astonishing lackadaisical attitudes to government work and resources.
This is further compounded by incredible political instability leading to frequent changes in administrative leadership.
The consequence is development of survivalist instinct by civil servants. A civil servant who is not sure of his job; a civil servant who knows that he can be removed anytime, must prepare for the expected.
He must like biblical steward prepare for the rainy day by making hay while the Sun shines. It is only by doing so that he can avoid being caught unaware.
In view of the above points some civil servants and other public officials behave as if they are not accountable to people. Right now Nigerian society looks like a vast arena where predictors scavange for unmerited loot to the detriment of the unprivileged Nigeria who die in hunger and starvation.
Ekwuno writes from Obosi. 08063730644
