Lagos, June 10, 2024 – The Organised Labour may commence another round of strike after Tuesday barring any new minimum wage offer by the federal government.
The federal government has offered N62,000 as its’s last offer on Friday which labour described as a starvation wage.
It said it would not accept N62,000 nor N100,000 as the minimum wage for workers.
The union had insisted on N250,000 at the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage on Friday.
The one week given for negotiation by the federal government will expire by the midnight on Tuesday.
Chris Onyeka, the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said this while speaking on Channels Television on Monday.
“Our position is very clear. We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to 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 market place; realities of things we buy every day, bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.
“The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call.
“Our demand is there for them 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 facts 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.
“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 the 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.” (GBN)
