Representatives of the Nigeria's organised labour on Sunday, 4th November 2018 shunned the meeting
called by the Federal Government (FG) as part of efforts to stop the
looming nationwide strike instigated mainly by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade
Union Congress (TUC).
It would be recalled that the unions’ planned indefinite strike scheduled to commence on
Tuesday, 6th November 2018 was called to protest government’s failure to meet the labour’s
demand for a new national minimum wage.
While state governors had proposed a new N22, 500 from the current
N18, 000 minimum wage, the labour unions demand at least N30, 000.
Some government officials however attended the meeting hosted by the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Gida
Mustapha which held behind closed door.
Rostrum gathered that those at the meeting included Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris
Ngige; Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed; officials of the National
Salaries Income and Wage Commission, and some permanent secretaries.
Mr. Mustapha, who spoke before the meeting went into closed session, said
the tripartite committee on National Minimum Wage set up by the FG would be concluding works on its report on Monday, 5th November 2018.
According to him, the FG was waiting for the report
so that it could commence processes leading to the enactment of law on
the new minimum wage.
He said the report would still go through the National Economic
Council (NEC) and the Council of State before an Executive Bill would be
sent to the National Assembly on the issue.
Mr. Mustapha stated that many states were still finding it difficult to pay the current
minimum wage, recalling that the FG instituted bailout
for the purpose of helping the states to meet up.
“The only outstanding issues left for the committee was to harmonise
the 15th chapter of the report, harmonise figures and submit report to
the President. I assure you that government is waiting for the report
and will immediately set up processes required for implementation.
"Hopefully, their work would be concluded when they meet tomorrow (today)
and append their signatures to the report.
“They will then transmit to me and I will seek an audience with the
President to present it to him. The report will go through NEC, Council
of State before a draft executive bill will be sent to NASS. I am
awaiting the report of the committee. They will meet tomorrow (today) at
11am.
Rostrum further gathered that the two officials of the labour unions deliberately shunned the scheduled meeting with the
government.
One of the unions' leader, who insisted on not being named, said “Our
leaders got information that the government team shamelessly wanted to
serve us a so-called court suit as part of measures to frustrate our
planned strike.
"This strike is on behalf of Nigerian workers and the
government has been deceiving us. We saw the handwriting on the wall
especially after the warning strike.” the whistle blower landed.
