The Federal Government (FG) has faulted the strike embarked by the organised labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) over minimum, describing the exercise as “premature, ineffectual and illegal”.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Federal Government (FG) has faulted the strike embarked by the organised labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress over minimum, describing the exercise as “premature, ineffectual and illegal”.
The strike begins today, according to the directive by the labour leaders to workers in the country.
After a four-hour meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on Sunday evening in Abuja, the leadership of the Organised Labour declared that there was no going back on the nationwide industrial action slated to start today, Monday, June 3, 2024.
“For now, we don’t have the power to call off the strike, tomorrow (Monday) morning, the strike will kick off as we take their (NASS) plea asking us to call off the strike to our various organs,” said Festus Osifo, TUC president, after the meeting with NASS leadership.
READ ALSO:
Minimum wage: Ex-CAN chairman Hayab advises labour to pursue dialogue not strike
Earlier, Osifo and his NLC counterpart, Joe Ajaero, met with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas in Abuja.
The meeting was part of last-minute efforts by the legislators to persuade aggrieved workers to shelve their planned industrial action for a new minimum wage.
Faulting the strike, the federal government said Organised Labour failed to meet all statutory requirements and International Labour Organisation (ILO) principles before the declaration of industrial action.
It also said there is a subsisting court order precluding Labour from embarking on strike, which is yet to be vacated.
The government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), listed sections 41(1) and 42(1) of the Trade Disputes Act 2004 (as amended) which requires labour to give a 15-day prior strike notice before embarking on a strike and Section 31(6) of the Trade Unions Act (as amended) as some of the laws.
Fagbemi, in a letter to NLC and TUC pointed out that the unions did not take “recourse to conciliation, meditation, and (voluntary) arbitration procedures” as outlined by the ILO before declaring the strike.
He consequently appealed to the NLC and TUC to reconsider their positions because of the negative effects the strike would have on the citizenry and the economy.
His remarks came on the heels of the National Assembly stressing that it would engage the parties to the dispute (Federal Government, states, and the private sector) “in constructive dialogue and explore a variety of solutions in addressing the issues at hand.”
The NLC and TUC on Friday directed their affiliate unions to mobilise for the strike to register their displeasure over the outcome of Thursday’s meeting by the wage committee.
At the meeting on Thursday, the Federal Government and the private sector increased their offers to N60,000 while labour buckled down from its initial demand of N615,000 to N494,000. The failure to reach a compromise by the two parties gave strong indications on the inevitability of the strike.
