The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its counterpart, Trade Union Congress (TUC) have explained the rationale behind the suspension of the nationwide strike for one week after it entered its second day yesterday.
Recall that the strike commenced Monday in protest against the failure of the federal government to approve new minimum wage by May 31.
On the first day of the industrial action, seaports, airports, financial sector, public educational institutions as well as power supply were shut down.
However, towards the evening of Tuesday (yesterday), the two labour centres announced the suspension of the nationwide action after a meeting with the federal government representatives.
Announcing the suspension of the strike at the end of their joint national executive council, the presidents of NLC and TUC, Messrs Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo said in a communiqué that the action suspended for five days because of the federal government’s proposal to commit to a higher national minimum wage.
The communiqué read: “On the national minimum wage, the NEC-in-Session acknowledges the personal offer by the President Tinubu to commit to a higher national minimum wage above the N60, 000 on offer.
“On electricity tariff hike and classification: The NEC-in-Session is deeply disappointed by the government’s silence and lack of concrete action regarding reversal of electricity tariff hike and the abolition of the apartheid classification of electricity consumers into bands.
‘’The NEC reaffirms that these issues are critical to alleviating the financial burden on Nigerian workers and the general populace. The electricity tariff hike and discriminatory band classification remain unacceptable and must be addressed alongside the wage increase.
“On the reason for withdrawing from the wage setting process, the NEC-in-session frowned on the refusal of the federal government to go beyond N60, 000 at the ongoing national minimum wage negotiation which compelled our withdrawal.
“On the agreement with the federal government, the NEC-in-session affirms that the federal government has agreed that the offer of N60, 000 was not sufficient and has, therefore, shown commitment to making better wage offer to Nigerian workers and reaching agreement on same within one week.
“In view of the deliberations, the NEC-in-session resolved as follows that there is a greater need to create the right ambience for negotiation to continue unhindered.
‘’The indefinite nationwide strike is, therefore, relaxed for one week from today (yesterday) to allow the federal government commit to a concrete and acceptable national minimum wage; take definitive steps to reverse the electricity tariff hike back to N66/kwh and abolish the discriminatory classification of electricity consumers into Bands.
“The NLC and TUC national leadership are mandated to continue to maintain open channels of communication with the federal government to negotiate and secure favourable outcomes for Nigerian workers and people.
“All affiliate unions and state councils are, therefore, directed to relax the indefinite nationwide strike and return to their respective work places immediately.
“The NEC-in-Session expresses profound gratitude to Nigerian workers and the general public for their unwavering support and solidarity in this critical struggle for improved living and working conditions.
“The NLC and TUC remain committed to pursuing all necessary actions to protect the rights and welfare of all Nigerian people and workers as we urge all to await further directives while the negotiation continues.”
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has directed the minister of finance, Mr Wale Edun to provide the financial implications of the new minimum wage in 48 hours.
The minister of information and national orientation, Mr Mohammed Idris disclosed this to journalists in Abuja yesterday.
“The President has just summoned a meeting of all those who negotiated on behalf of the Federal Government led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The minister of finance was there, the minister of budget planning, the minister of information, the minister of budget and national planning, the minister of labour, and the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
“We were all there to look at all issues and the President has directed the minister of finance to do the numbers and get back to him between today and tomorrow so that we can have figures ready for negotiation with labour.”
“The President is determined to go with what the committee has said and he’s also looking at the welfare of Nigerians.
“The government is not against or opponent of labour discussions; the government is not an opponent of wage increase but what is there is that government is always there to ensure that there is a balance between what government pronouncement is and what the realities are on the ground.
“And therefore, we will work assiduously to ensure that whatever promises the government makes are promises that will be kept. That is the idea of this meeting,” Idris stated.
He further said the president had directed the government representatives to work collectively with the organised private sector and the sub-nationals to achieve a new affordable wage award for Nigerians.
“The President has given a marching order that all those who have negotiated on behalf of the federal government and all those who are representatives of organised private sectors, the sub-nationals to come together to have a new wage that is affordable, sustainable and that is also realistic for Nigerians.
“The wage is not just that of the federal government as I mentioned earlier, the sub-nationals are involved, the organised private sector is involved; it was labour that stepped out during that procedure. Now we have come back to the negotiation table.”
The minister assured that all hands would be on deck to present a new minimum wage for Nigerians in one week.
“All of us will work together assiduously within the next one week to ensure that we have a new wage for Nigeria that is acceptable, sustainable and also realistic,” Idris said.
Meanwhile, Osifo said the organised labour would not accept incremental offer to the N60, 000 initially offered by the government.
“We also told them that it’s not that we’d get to the table and you start adding N1, N2, N3,000 as you were doing and we got some good guarantees here and there that they would do something good,” he said.
Osifo added that labour was not fixated on N494, 000 as the new minimum wage for workers in the country but the tripartite committee must show seriousness and offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures.
He emphasised that new minimum wage must be equal in purchasing power to the value of N30,000 in 2019 and N18,000 in 2014.
