A LABOURER DESERVES HIS WAGES (Luke 10:7): TOWARDS A LASTING SOLUTION TO WAGE CRISIS AND INCESSANT STRIKES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The issue of wage in Nigeria has become so worrisome. There have been various problems that emanate from wage issue in Nigeria. The Nigerian labour force and the employers of labour especially the government both at the federal and state levels have experienced various degrees of crises as such, matters about wage continually lead to problems. These crises in most cases are culminated into strike or industrial actions that hamper the expected goals for which various institutions were established. It may be that employers of labour are ignorant of the religious backing of wage. From Christian perspective, wage payment is a religious duty that its negligence amounts to sin. Occupying a special position in maintaining peace between the workers and their employers, this work using virtue ethics approach, gathered data from secondary source of information, discusses the expected reasons for the continued wage crisis in Nigeria. These include lack of workable economic planning, problem of interpretation of wage laws, insincerity of politicians, imbalance in federal allocations and much focus on oil resources among other reasons for wage crisis in Nigeria. The work proffered solutions to the problem under study. To get rid of the wage crisis in Nigeria, cost of governance has to be addressed, objective dialogue is needed, viable economic planning both at the federal and state levels are important, justice should serve as a watchword among other solutions. The work concluded that if the solutions as proffered by this work are considered in policies that concern wage in Nigeria, there will be noticeable reduction in wage crises in Nigeria.