Meeting between Organized labour and Federal Govt.on minimum wage ended in deadlock culminates in Strike action.
By Our Correspondent.
Members of the organised labour, on Friday, declared a nationwide indefinite strike over the Federal Government’s refusal to raise the proposed minimum wage from sixty thousand Naira.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, disclosed this at a press conference in the Labour House, Abuja.
Ajaero said the strike would begin by midnight on Sunday, June second , twenty twenty four.
The NLC leader, who read from a jointly prepared speech alongside his Trade Union Congress counterpart, Festus Osifo, expressed what it described as, “grave concern and disappointment” over the Federal Government’s failure to conclude and pass into law a new National Minimum Wage Act and reverse the hike in electricity tariff to N65/kWh.
Ajaero noted that the Friday meeting between the government and labour further demonstrated the unseriousness and apparent contempt with which the Nigerian state holds the demands of Nigerian workers and people.
He lamented that no governor was present and ministers absent except the Minister of State for Labour and Employment who doubles as a conciliator.
There was none present on the side of the government with the appropriate authority to commit them to any outcome; in essence, the government abandoned the meeting he added.
Ajaero noted that during the last May Day celebration on May first twenty twenty four organised labour issued an ultimatum to the Federal Government, demanding the conclusion of the minimum wage negotiation by the end of the month.
He stressed that there has been no significant progress or commitment from the government towards meeting this demand.
He added that the organized labour also demanded a reversal of the last hike in electricity tariff to N225/kwh back to N65/kWh and stoppage of the apartheid categorization of consumers into Bands.
Ajaero affirmed that Nigerian workers, who are the backbone of our nation’s economy, deserve fair and decent wages that reflect the current economic realities,” Ajaero said.
He further said it was disheartening that despite the repeated calls and the clear ultimatum issued, the government continues to neglect its responsibility to the workforce.
