The paltry pay faceoff between the Lagos State Government and its street sweepers is beyond a trade dispute. It shows how the Nigerian society treats the masses. The ordinary people seem to matter only when their vote is desperately needed. When the election is over, they are left to sink or swim.
In Nigeria, the rich do not suffer the harsh effects of fuel subsidy removal or the consequences of naira flotation and devaluation, all of which have been choking the poor. At least, the ruling class should show empathy.
Ordinarily, the sweepers do not expect to be on the same salary structure as graduates, but they perform critical tasks, especially keeping the highways free of refuse and silt.
Therefore, they should be paid a sustainable wage and treated well. Before most Lagosians wake up, the sweepers are out on the streets. They work hard under dangerous conditions. Residents rely on them to clean up not just garbage carelessly dumped on the road, but even human waste left there overnight.
Some sweepers have been run over by reckless drivers. Yet they have no pension or gratuity. Lagos should review the sweepers’ welfare package.
The sweepers were quietly working under these inhuman conditions until one of them launched a protest, complaining, among other things, that some of them earned below N40,000 a month, which is not even paid regularly.
Lagos smelled so much from the heaps of rubbish when President Bola Tinubu was governor (1991-2007) that he was forced to make a video, appealing, “Lagosians, we cannot continue like this.” But Babatunde Fashola cleaned up the system.
The sweepers ensure that Lagos residents do not turn up their noses when walking or driving through the streets. They ought to be adequately remunerated and appreciated for doing their four-hour shifts.
On Monday, the Managing Director of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, Muyiwa Gbadegesin, said, “It is untrue that the government does not care about the street sweepers.” He countered that the sweepers enjoyed welfare benefits, wage adjustments and healthcare access like government staff and that they were targets of empowerment schemes.
On the N40,000 monthly pay, he said, “If they were full-time staff, at that rate, they would be making N80,000 a month, which is N10,000 above the national minimum wage.” This argument is weak, considering the vital work the sweepers do. They should be placed on a special scale to reflect their contribution to society.
Indeed, the minimum wage is grossly insufficient. Earlier, the Lagos State Waste Management Agency said the sweepers were engaged through private companies under “structured contracts” and that those private companies “are responsible for directly paying their engaged sweepers”.
This should be reviewed. Why outsource such an important job to a pocket-pinching private company in the first place? Outsourcing should be for ease and better work, not to deny the workers their due, leaving them unmotivated. They cannot give their best under such circumstances.
With a purchasing power parity of $259 billion and regarded as the state with the highest internally generated revenue in Nigeria, Lagos can afford to engage the sweepers full-time.
For a state looking to keep evolving and modernising, the authorities can consider mechanising its cleaning infrastructure. Even with the street sweepers’ hard work, a lot more needs to be done to keep the state clean.
Street-sweeper vehicles equipped with brushes or vacuum systems that pick up debris and dust will help. So will vacuum sweepers and street washers.
Gbadegesin said the sweepers had an opportunity to do some work elsewhere after their four-hour shift. This is unfortunate. The minimum wage in California is $16 per hour for all employers, higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
As Lagos aspires to a megacity status, it should carry all its labour force along.
