In the concluding part of this feature on the plights of Lagos street sweepers, IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI and MUHAMMED LAWAL show how the state government may have violated the rights of street sweepers to minimum wage despite the risks associated with their job
Since July, when the two chambers of the National Assembly passed the 2024 National Minimum Wage Amendment Act Bill into law, there have been debates on whether workers in the non-formal sector and those under contractual arrangements involving multiple parties, like street cleaners, should be included in the new national wage structure.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio triggered the debate when he said all employees in the country, including domestic and casual workers, must be paid the new national minimum wage.
“It is not a maximum wage. It applies to all and sundry,” Akpabio said during a plenary session at the Red Chamber.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachollom Daju, also indicated that it had become a crime for any employer to pay less than N70,000 to any of its workers.
While emphasising the necessity of the updated wage to address current economic conditions, Daju stated that no worker, whether in public or private employment, should earn less than the minimum wage.
“The private employment agencies should make it compulsory in any contract they take from their principal that their workers should not earn less than the minimum wage. The least paid worker in Nigeria should earn N70,000, which should be after all deductions.
“The minimum wage is a law, and you can be jailed if you fail to implement it. The Federal Government is committed to ensuring that the least paid worker goes home with N70,000,” she stated.
But the Managing Director of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, Mr Ibrahim Odumboni, said the sweepers were hired by contractors, who should be responsible for their salaries and welfare.
Reacting, a rights lawyer, Festus Ogun, said the law also covers contractual workers.
He contended that even if the sweepers were not direct employees of the state government as argued by LAWMA, “the government has the responsibility to ensure that the workers engaged by independent contractors to carry out the works are treated fairly. This is because whether they are staff of the government or not, in whose interest are they working? The government of course.”
According to him, it is “sheer wickedness, exploitative and an unfair labour practice” for the cleaners to be paid as low as N30,000 in this current state of the economy.
“This is because it is not even a reasonable wage. Can anybody live on N30,000 in this age and time? How do you expect a worker, whether casual or otherwise, to live on N30,000 even in a week? It is only in the interest of justice and fairness that the wage is reviewed upward,” he added.
A lawyer with Pavestones Legal firm based in Ikoyi, Aderonke Alex-Adedipe, said the scope of employees covered by the Nigerian Labour Act encompassed both clerical workers and manual labourers.
She argued that the employers exempted from complying with the Amendment Act were those establishments whose workers are paid based on commission or piece rate (paid according to the quantity produced regardless of time).
She explained that the list also included establishments with fewer than 25 employees; workers in seasonal employment such as agriculture, construction, and tourism; and those employed in vessels or aircraft to which merchant shipping or civil aviation laws applied.
The suffering continues
Last Tuesday afternoon, as one of our correspondents approached the overhead bridge in the Abule-Egba area of Lagos State, Achebe, a dedicated street sweeper, pressed on tirelessly. Despite the scorching sun, she continued working with unwavering determination.
She gathered refuse from the bustling roads as sweat beads dripped from her brow, mixing with the dirt that clung to her skin. Her eyes, though heavy with fatigue, remained focused on the task at hand with each sweep of the broom marking her determination.
The mother of six said she was initially elated when the state Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced the N85,000 minimum wage for all workers in the state in October.
“Yes, I was very excited. I had planned to save at least N20,000 for my children’s school fees, and then spend the rest on feeding,” she said.
But her joy was short-lived when she learnt, to her chagrin, that the state cleaners were excluded from the new wage structure.
“I became saddened when I heard the news. In fact, I couldn’t hold back my tears that day. My major worry was how I would find the means to raise my children’s tuition,” she said.
According to the woman, her husband works for a company but sometimes goes three months without receiving any pay. As a result, the family must survive on the paltry wages from LAWMA.
The Ebonyi State-born cleaner said one of her sons recently gained admission to the university. But instead of feeling joy, the fear of how to sponsor his education only added to her anxieties.
“We were only able to raise part of his acceptance fees. He is still at home because we don’t have money to pay the rest, especially his tuition. I wept all night on this,” the cleaner said in a cracking voice.
Forty-two-year-old Elizabeth is another sweeper in the state.
For the single mother of four, her already difficult living conditions have been compounded by the visible burden of a swollen neck caused by a goiter.
When our correspondent approached her on Tuesday afternoon, her tear-streaked face spoke volumes about her health and economic struggles.
Unlike some of her peers, Elizabeth has been deeply affected by the heavy goiter on her neck. She was nearly moved to tears as she recounted how her ordeal began.
“I joined LAWMA about four years ago. Then, I was still living with my husband, but he has since left me because of my health condition. Since then, I have been struggling to raise funds for my treatment and support my children at the same time,” the cleaner lamented.
According to her, she often survives on loans. “But repaying these loans is another heavy burden.”
Saturday TheNigerian previously reported that Lagos generates over 13,000 tons of waste daily from its 16-million population. The pressing need to consistently keep the state clean led to the employment of street sweepers.
However, despite their efforts to meet this daily mandate, the workers have been left to endure hardships occasioned by meager wages.
Beside a reeking gutter, 40-year-old Morayo, holding a bamboo-like broom, ran towards Saturday TheNigerian to ask for cash. Unknown to her, our correspondent was also approaching her for a discussion.
She looked far older than her age.
The sweeper, in her threadbare apron and scattered appearance, said her monthly salary of N30,000 remained woefully insufficient to meet even the most basic needs of her family.
“I trek to work every day, back and forth, for hours under the scorching sun. Sometimes, I don’t even have enough to eat. But I push through, day in, day out, hoping for a change that never comes,” she stated, her voice filled with resignation and defiance. “If people looked at me, they would know I’m suffering.”
“I can’t send my children to school. They have to learn a trade as I can’t even afford to give them proper education,” the woman added with tears forming in her eyes.
Highlighting the life-threatening hazards associated with street sweeping, she said, “We work under the hot sun, and there’s nothing to show for it. Aside from the salary, we don’t receive any benefits. Whenever something is given to us by a prominent person, those at the top take it all for themselves.”
“We work seven days a week, including Sundays. Some of us have been killed while sweeping. Some have been injured. What will be our gain if, in the end, we are denied the wages we deserve?” she queried.
Elizabeth added passionately, “We are humans, not animals, and we deserve better wages, especially considering the significant risks involved in our work.”
For these women, the minimum wage might be the only benefit they could receive from the government.
Yet, it feels like an unattainable dream to them.
For Alimotu, another sweeper, the hardship extends beyond the job.
On rare occasions when she falls ill, she finds herself unable to afford medical treatment. “If I’m sick and I don’t have money, there’s nothing I can do. I have to wait until I get some money before I can treat myself,” she said.
Even more heartbreaking are the moments when her children go to bed hungry.
“Sometimes, when I don’t have money to feed them, they sleep hungry or manage with whatever they can find. It breaks my heart.”
When her children call her at work, begging for food, she is forced to ask them to wait until she gets home, though she knows she may not have anything to give.
Lagos as direct employers
Saturday TheNigerian gathered that Lagos street sweepers fall into two categories: those directly employed by LAWMA and others contracted by private firms.
While LAWMA-employed sweepers wear orange jumpsuits, their counterparts hired by private firms dress in jumpsuits with other colours.
But regardless of their mode of employment, one grim reality unites them: they all earn significantly below the national minimum wage.
In 2022, street sweepers earned a paltry N25,000 per month.
Although the state governor pledged to improve their wages in January 2023, the increase was a mere N5,000. This was how the sweepers started receiving N30,000 monthly, amid limited healthcare support.
The situation was even worse a decade ago. In 2012, when the national minimum wage was N18,000, private contractors paid sweepers just N10,000, while LAWMA-employed sweepers earned N12,000.
At the time, approximately 120 contractors employed about 12,500 sweepers across the state.
In 2017, the Lagos State Government introduced the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, aimed at reforming the solid waste management sector.
During a press briefing in Alausa, the then Commissioner for Environment, Dr Babatunde Adejare, announced plans to expand the street-sweeping workforce from 4,500 to 27,500 Community Sanitation Workers, covering all 377 political wards in the state.
As part of the initiative, 377 Ward Resident Contractors were to be engaged to oversee the CSWs, with a human resource management company tasked with training and deploying the workers.
Adejare assured that the CSWs would be fully equipped to handle sweeping and address vegetation-related nuisances in their communities. Promised incentives included tax reliefs, healthcare benefits, and life, injury, and accident insurance.
However, nearly seven years later, many of these promises remain unfulfilled, leaving street sweepers across the state to toil under challenging conditions.
The national minimum wage remains a distant dream for most of them.
Adekunle, a supervisor for some street sweepers in the state, expressed disappointment over the exclusion of cleaners from the new payment structure despite their dire economic struggles.
“The sweepers work tirelessly under the sun, without offices, to ensure Lagos remains clean at all times. Everyone knows that if Lagos becomes dirty, it will reflect poorly on the government. This is why our able governor values the cleaners greatly. He even calls them his street angels. That is why it is surprising to hear that the sweepers are not included in the new wage bracket,” Adekunle said.
He further noted that some people claim the street sweepers are not directly employed by the state government and, therefore, should not expect to benefit from the minimum wage adjustment.
“That is what we heard. But I believe since both we and the sweepers are under the C/O, we are ultimately part of government’s structure. And since the government has implemented the minimum wage for some workers, it is only fair that we are included.
“Even if the government cannot pay us the full minimum wage, it should at least pay us something very close to it as compensation for our hard labour,” he added with frustration.
International law
The International Labour Organisation, in its Minimum Wage Policy Guide, noted that “minimum wages should also apply to workers in non-standard forms of employment, including workers on fixed-term contracts and other forms of temporary work, temporary agency work, and other contractual arrangements involving multiple parties, or part-time work.”
The ILO stressed that countries like Nigeria should progressively extend minimum wage protections, in law and in practice, to workers in the informal economy through the process of formalisation, as contained in the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation guide published in 2015.
The National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Debo Adeniran, echoed this position in an interview with Saturday TheNigerian.
He said, “There should be agitation for the inclusion of the street sweepers in the minimum wage bracket or formalisation of their employment. We all know how much Lagos generates from LAWMA.
“The agency is being treated like an independent agency of Lagos State. But they are using the street sweepers like menial hard labour contractors who serve bricklayers on construction sites. That’s why they are not enrolled as formal staffers of LAWMA.”
Speaking with Saturday TheNigerian, an activist, Juwon Sanyaolu, said the government’s failure to pay the sweepers the approved minimum wage amounts to modern-day slavery—a practice unworthy of a state celebrated as Nigeria’s “Centre of Excellence.”
According to him, many workers have been pushed further into poverty due to the economic strain caused by surging inflation and exchange rate volatility.
The activist added that the women should earn more than the “slavish” wage, adding that they deserved a living wage.
Sanyaolu said, “There’s no reason why we should be debating the payment of the minimum wage for the street sweepers, given the severe economic challenges facing the country.
“They deserve the N85,000 minimum wage, but in truth, no one should be earning anything less than N600,000, especially with the current inflation rate.”
He expressed concern over the inadequacy of the newly proposed minimum wage of N70,000 to N80,000, pointing out that the amount was insufficient to cover even basic living expenses.
“The new minimum wage can barely fill a vehicle’s fuel tank, let alone meet the basic needs of workers,” the activist added.
We have submitted proposal — Contractor
Saturday TheNigerian reached out to Highway Managers Limited, one of the private firms contracted to hire some of the workers.
A worker in the company, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, disclosed that more than 17,000 street sweepers were under the direct employ of LAWMA, while others were hired by private firms.
He said, “LAWMA has about 17,000 sweepers. But our sweepers are professionals and we pay them the minimum wage. Our workers wear lemon jumpsuits, but those of LAWMA wear orange jumpsuits and they are in large numbers. I think they are the ones agitating.
“The newly announced minimum wage for Lagos will come in the New Year because there is no current provision for that. But we understand that they have included everything in the new budget, which will start in the New Year. But as of now, we are still paying a minimum wage of N30,000. We have written for the new minimum wage and the government is working on it.
“We are contractors and we have fixed amounts of money that they give to us every month for that purpose. It cannot just be changed anyhow like that because it involves contractual issues. But from highway managers, nobody is protesting and making noise.”
