The Organised Labour said should the FG and NASS fail to act on its ₦250,000 demand by Tuesday, NLC and TUC organs would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide strike relaxed last week.
“Our position is very clear,” said Chris Onyeka, an Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday.
The Organised Labour says it will not accept any ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 “starvation wage” as the minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
Onyeka insisted that labour won’t accept the latest government’s offer of ₦62,000 and the ₦100,000 proposal by some individuals and economists.
Onyeka said, “We have never considered accepting ₦62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.
“We have never contemplated ₦100,000 let alone ₦62,000. We are still at ₦250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation. We are not just driven by frivolities but the realities of the marketplace; realities of things we buy every day: bags of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”
Onyeka said the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by the midnight of Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
He said should the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on the demands of workers by tomorrow (Tuesday), the organs of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action relaxed last week.
The NLC Official said, “The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various facts of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.
“If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the Organised Labour will meet to decide on what next.”
When asked what the decision of Labour would be should the government insist on ₦62,000, he said, “It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and the organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) began an indefinite strike on June 3 to force the government to agree on a new minimum wage for workers as well as review the increase in the price of electricity for some consumers.
They reached an agreement with the federal government on a new national minimum wage.
Although no amount was agreed upon as the new minimum wage, the parties agreed that the federal government would agree to a higher figure than the N60,000 it currently offers.
