Organizational labor has been urged by the federal government to postpone its planned industrial action and go back to the bargaining table.
Due to the increase in electricity prices and the tripartite committee’s failure to come to a decision on a new minimum wage, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) announced on Friday that they would go on an indefinite strike, starting on Monday.
However, just one day after the announcement, Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, requested labor to assess its decision and take into account the financial impact of its N494,000 new minimum wage demand on the government.
He stated in Abuja, “Labor walked out of that meeting on May 31, 2024, in one of its meetings, which is supposed to be the seventh meeting of the tripartite agreement.”
Naturally, this was going to be the third occasion that labor had left a tripartite committee meeting. The labor union was convinced to return to the bargaining table on the prior two times. In the interest of Nigeria, we also hope that labor will once more find grounds to return to the negotiation table.
He declared: “Labor’s demand for an N494,000 national minimum wage would result in a cumulative bill to the Federal government of Nigeria N9.5 trillion.”
The governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, pleaded with labor to call off the scheduled industrial action at the same time as the federal government made its appeal.
Speaking after visiting Governor Alex Otti of Abia in his hometown of Isiala-Ngwa Local Government Area in the South-East state, he was accompanied by his counterpart from Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, and a few members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national working committee.
“A number of state governors won’t have the money. Even with the existing N30,000 minimum salary, some states cannot afford it. He continued, “And I know labor leaders are actually leaders.
They ought to consider this since the walkout could severely damage the economy and inflict further suffering on employees and the general public. Therefore, we are begging that there be a point of convergence where we can assess our affordability.
Three offers from the Federal Government were turned down by organized labor prior to the strike announcement.
At the sixth tripartite committee meeting, the Federal Government proposed to pay a minimum salary of N60,000; however, organized labor rejected the offer, insisting on N497,000.
