Annual report on Nigeria / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Nigeria / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other items as cannot be paid for by exchange and barter. Thus, a simple statement that 30,000 workers are employed in occupations relating to tin mining would present a false picture. Regional Wage Committees have been established to advise on changes affecting wage-rates in their respective areas and a Standing Advisory Committee on Overtime continues to function in respect of government employees. In the main, the larger private employers follow the lead given by Government with regard to wages and conditions of service. At present, returns relating to the number of workers employed are received from only a small proportion of employers, and in the majority of cases the information is unreliable and inaccurate. The approximate number of workers employed in various areas during 1949, is set out in the following table : Area Ex-servicemen Civilians Total employed employed Northern Provinces Eastern Provinces 9.984 69,449 79>433 (including British Cameroons) 9,768 85,085 94,853 Western Provinces 13,034 155,160 168,194 Lagos and Colony 7,067 33.452 40,519 1949 Grand Total 39.853 343,146 382,999 These figures show an increase of 11,215 ex-servicemen, 99,384 civilians and a total increase of 110,599 workers employed compared with 1948. Government continues to be the largest employer of labour in the country. Its wage rates are based on the report of a committee set up to recommend consolidated wage rates and cost-of-living allow¬ ances for employees not coming within the purview of the Harragin Commission. Labour is now, for wage purposes, divided into the three categories of general labour, special labour, and skilled artisans, and the country is divided into six geographical areas. Rates for the various categories are prescribed for the different areas, and were made retrospective to 1st January, 1946. Rates vary from 9d. to 2s. nd. per day for general labour, and from is. id. to 3s. 6d. per day for special labour according to locality, while artisans receive from 4s. 6d. to 8s. per day according to grade, with various rates of increment. The standard weekly hours of work vary from 34 for clerical workers to 45 for technical and industrial workers ; certain classes of workers in Government departments have a standard 44-hour week.
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