Minimum wage: Labour decides on strike resumption Tuesday

The Organised Labour says it will meet on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, to decide on the resumption of the suspended nationwide strike over the new minimum wage.

The Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said the one-week grace period given to the federal government last Tuesday would expire by midnight of Tuesday, June 11.

The Star recalls that the unions, on Monday, June 3, embarked on a nationwide strike after rejecting the federal government’s N60,000 offer as minimum wage.

The unions later suspended the industrial action for one week to give room for further negotiations with the federal government after promising to increase the minimum wage from N60,000.

The government, on Friday, July 7, said it has offered the Labour N62,000 as the new national minimum wage, adding: “The Organised Private Sector and the federal government have agreed on N62,000 while the Organised Labour is asking for N250,000.”

However, NLC Assistant General Secretary Chris Onyeka, while speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Monday, June 10, said the Organised Labour would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide strike if the federal government and National Assembly fail to act on workers’ demands on Tuesday.

Labour: Why we demanded N250,000 as minimum wage

Onyeka 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 fact 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.”

The NLC official further described the minimum wage proposal as a “starvation wage”, saying: “We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know can take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.

“We have never contemplated N100,000, let alone N62,000. We are still at N250,000, 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: a bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”

When asked what the decision of Labour would be should the government insist on N62,000, Onyeka 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 that 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 Star