. Gives October 30 deadline
The organised Labour has expressed dissatisfaction with the slow pace of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding,MOU, it signed with the Federal Government to avert its planned nationwide strike.
The state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress said failure to implement the agreement before the October 30 deadline might leave them with no choice but to down tools, noting that they had commenced mobilisation of their members across the country.
Asked on Tuesday whether Labour was satisfied with the implementation of the MoU, the Head of Information and Public Affairs of the NLC, Benson Upah, said, “No, we are not. The government could do better and faster. We issued a statement a few days ago in which we expressed our displeasure with the Minister of Labour and Employment.”
The national leadership of the NLC and TUC had on October 1 reached an agreement with the Federal Government to pay N35,000 to all federal workers beginning from September pending when a new national minimum wage would be signed into law.
The resolution provided that the wage award would be paid to the federal workers for six months while states were encouraged to extend the same benefit to their workers.
The unions had threatened to declare a nationwide strike on October 3 but the move was suspended on the condition that the wage award, cash transfer, and some other resolutions must be implemented within 30 days effective from the day the MoU was signed.
The PUNCH reports that out of the 15 demands contained in the MoU, only a handful had been implemented by the government.
He said, “Failure to meet these demands, labour will declare industrial action in Gombe State because we have many issues in Gombe but these are our priority areas.”
Commenting on the delay in the implementation of the demands, the NLC and TUC leadership in Benue State pledged their readiness to comply with any directive from the national secretariat of their respective unions.
Speaking in separate telephone interviews, Terungwa Igbe and Gideon Akaa, the chairmen of NLC and TUC, respectively, said that they would adhere to any directive from their unions.
Igbe said that the state government had yet to respond to his letter demanding the implementation of the N35,000 wage award.
“We have not received any response from the state government after the joint letter we sent to it on the N35,000 wage award. Anytime the union calls for a strike, we have no option than to comply,” Igbe said.
The TUC leader noted, “Neither the N35,000 wage award nor palliatives has been responded to as far as I know. Meanwhile, we heard from the media that the state government promised to use part of the N2bn palliative to pay for external examinations of students. We believe that the children of workers will benefit from that.’’
Asked about the union’s next line of action in the event the government fails to fulfil the agreement, Akaa said, “Whatever our mother union directs is what we are going to carry out.”
However, the unions in Sokoto State revealed they would soon resume talks with the state government on the implementation of the MoU reached with the Federal Government.
“We are hoping to have a meeting this week on some of those issues raised in our letter. All the issues are already with the governor. Talking about the resumption of the strike, we will definitely wait for the directive of the national headquarters on when to commence strike even if all our demands are not met at the state level,’’ Hamisu Hussain, the TUC secretary, disclosed.
Checks indicated that the Kwara State government had yet to pay the N35,000 award to the workers in the state.
The TUC Chairman in the state, Tunde Joseph, confirmed on Tuesday that the government had not responded to the request letter sent to it.
“We wrote a letter to Governor Mallam AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq on the awards for workers on October 4 and we submitted a reminder last week, but the government is yet to respond to any of the two letters. We are still waiting for the government to give a reply to our request on the awards,’’ Joseph stated, noting that the decision to go on strike if the authorities refused to implement the agreement would be taken by the national leadership of the union.
The state NLC Chairman, Saheed Olayinka, also explained that the state government had yet to reach out to the organised labour.
“Although, they are yet to invite us for a meeting, whatever action that we would take would depend on their decision at the national level,’’ he pointed out.
The NLC chief said many factors would be considered in arriving at a new minimum wage.
“Certain things would come into play when we discuss it – inflation, cost of living. Every other thing would come into it,” he added. “We would not go to ask for N65,000. We would go for a realistic amount because N65,000 is about $70 which is not up to minimum wage,’’ he further said.
