The country may be heading to a shut down over ongoing press for wage increase.
The meeting between the Federal Government and organised Labour on Tuesday ended in deadlock.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress had given the government a 14 day ultimatum, which commences February 23.
The Minister of State Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who hosted the parley in Abuja, could not convince the unions to suspend the planned strike.
Also, the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria threatened to down tools by February 27, 2024, if the Federal Government failed to implement the agreement it entered into with the association in 2020.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Tuesday, sought the understanding of the unions, saying, “We are optimistic Labour will see reason and strike will be averted in the interest of the nation.’0:00 / 1:01
The NLC and TUC on February 8 issued a 14-day nationwide strike notice to the Federal Government over the failure of the Bola Tinubu-led government to implement the agreements reached on October 2, 2023, following the removal of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit known as petrol.
In a statement signed by the leaders of the two labour unions, Joe Ajaero and Festus Usifo, the organised Labour expressed sadness that despite the passage of time, “The majority of these crucial agreements remain unmet or negligibly addressed, indicating a blatant disregard for the principles of good faith, welfare and rights of Nigerian workers and Nigerians.”
The unions said despite their efforts to ensure industrial peace, the government seemed unperturbed by the mass suffering and hardship across the country.
After the removal of the fuel subsidy by the President on May 29, 2023, the labour unions reached a 16-point agreement with the Federal Government on measures to cushion the pains of the subsidy removal on workers.
Among other things, the government agreed to pay N35,000 to all federal workers beginning from last 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 Federal Government also pledged to make cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians and provide 100 CNG (compressed natural gas) buses nationwide to ease the high transportation costs.
The NLC Vice President, Hakeem Ambali, on Tuesday, insisted that the strike would go on unless the Federal Government addressed “the untold hardship meted on Nigerians by the famous pronunciation that ‘subsidy is gone’ on 29 May.’’
He lamented that the Federal Government had yet to fulfil its part of the agreement with the labour movement.
“The two-week ultimatum stands except the government does the needful and addresses the untold hardship meted on Nigerians by the famous pronunciation that ‘subsidy is gone’ on 29 May.
“We can see pockets of protests across the country. These are very dangerous. So, Labour must rise and offer leadership; Our ultimatum is patriotic,’’ he declared.
