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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Federal Government Hijack Nlc Plan To Delay The Payment Of New Minimum Wage (474 Views)
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Federal Government Hijack Nlc Plan To Delay The Payment Of New Minimum Wage by Horladipupo0505: 11:25am On Oct 10, 2019 |
Olufemi Atoyebi, Chukwudi Akasike , Friday
Olokor , Ademola Babalola , Bola Bamigbola ,
John Charles , Patrick Odey , Tunde Oyekola ,
Maiharaji Altine , Tony Okafor , Edward
Nnaachi , Ada Wodu and Abiodun Nejo
A week ahead of the deadline given by the
organised labour for the implementation of the
new national minimum wage , the Federal
Government on Wednesday stepped up efforts
to stave off a nationwide strike .
The government on Wednesday held two
meetings with organised labour over workers ’
threat to embark on an industrial action if the
FG refused to accept their demand for a new
minimum wage implementation by October 16 ,
2019 .
The organised labour had at a meeting on
October 2 asked the government to accept its
demand on the consequential salary adjustment
arising from the new minimum wage or face
industrial action .
But on Wednesday , the organised labour said it
had begun mobilisation of workers for the
nationwide strike .
Also state chapters of the Nigeria Labour
Congress expressed their readiness to join the
strike , if the negotiation between the Federal
Government and labour failed .
Before the organised labour met with the
Federal Government on Wednesday , the
General Secretary of Joint National Public
Service Negotiating Council , Alade Lawal ,
during a meeting of the Association of Senior
Civil Servants of Nigeria in Abuja, said
mobilisation of workers for a possible industrial
action after October 16 , 2019 , had reached an
advanced stage.
But the Federal Government held two separate
closed- door meetings with labour leaders on
Wednesday . Both meetings were presided over
by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr
Chris Ngige.
Other present at the Wednesday meetings were
the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning ,
Hajia Zainab Ahmed; Minister of State , Finance,
Budget and Planning , Clement Agba ; Minister of
State for Labour , Mr Festus Keyamo, the Head
of Service of the Federation , Dr Folashade
Yemi - Esan ; Director General , Budget Office of
the Federation , Ben Akabueze ; acting
Chairman , National Salaries Incomes and
Wages Commission , Ekpo Nta ; and the
Accountant - General of the Federation , Ahmed
Idris .
The labour leaders at the meetings were Deputy
President of the NLC , Amaechi Asogwuni ;
General Secretary of the union , Emmanuel
Ugboaja ; acting Chairman of the Joint National
Public Service Negotiating Council , Achaver
Simon; Secretary of the union , Alade Lawal ;
and representatives of the Trade Union
Congress .
A statement signed by the Deputy Director ,
Press and Public Relations , Ministry of Labour
and Employment, Charles Akpan , stated the
government team met members of the JNPSNC
and organised labour separately .
“ It was resolved that each group would hold
further meetings to sort out all outstanding
disagreements before a high level conclusive
meeting to wrap up all discussions, paving the
way for an equable implementation of the
Consequential Adjustment of the Minimum
Wage scheduled for Tuesday , October 15 ,
2019 , ” said the statement .
A source told one of our correspondents that
the meetings were called to douse the tension
created by the notice given by the workers ’
union on a possible industrial action .
He said , “ The purpose is to address the threat
of labour and how the FG and labour can reach
an amicable solution over the new minimum
wage of N30 , 000. It is a closed- door meeting so
only the government representatives and the
union leaders are involved . ”
Powered by RubiQub The source said Ngige would meet members of
the old committee that negotiated with the
organised labour before negotiations collapsed.
FG has not implemented wage increase –
Workers
Speaking at the ASCSN meeting in Abuja ,
Alade Lawal said that organised labour would
not allow the FG to use what he described as
divide and rule tactic to create division among
workers .
He berated the FG for going public to announce
that it had begun payment of the new
minimum wage to workers at level one to six ,
noting that it was a ploy to gain cheap public
sympathy on the issue and portray other
categories of workers as greedy and
inconsiderate .
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He said , “ As far as I am concerned , nothing has
been implemented . What are they
implementing ? We are negotiating something
and somebody went behind to start issuing one
circular .
“ As far as we are concerned , nothing has been
done , and if you want to look at it , level one to
three has been outsourced , how many people
are there , so when you even look at the
circular , it ’ s full of errors ; as far as we are
concerned , no circular has been issued .
“ Look at this scenario , you have a salary
structure , you have a ratio between the
minimum and the maximum , when the
minimum was N18 , 000, you have what you
have at the maximum , then you have tilted the
minimum to N30 , 000 , are you going to leave the
table there?
“ It ’ s distortion , you don ’ t allow distortion and
it ’ s not allowed anywhere in the world , and
that is why you do consequential adjustment.
Strike starts anytime from October 17 –
Labour
“ Anytime from October 17 , 2019 , the leadership
of labour will give directive to members
nationwide on what to do . The measure of
seriousness can only be seen if something
concrete is done between now and the 16 th of
October , 2019 ; we are not part of government ,
we don ’ t know what they are doing. ”
Explaining why labour leaders met , Lawal
said , “ The meeting is to mobilise our members
towards the looming strike if the government
does not accede to the demands of labour in
respect of the consequential adjustment of
salaries arising from the new national
minimum wage .
“ After October 16 , we will give directives to our
members nationwide . It is both the public and
private sectors. You know that in labour
parlance , an injury to one is injury to all . So ,
whether private sector has implemented or not,
they will go on sympathy strike . It is going to
be a national strike . It is not going to be limited
to the public sector alone . ”
Lawal described the meeting convened by the
government for Wednesday as informal as no
agreement could be signed from such an
arrangement .
He said , “ If you go through the communique
issued by the TUC , the NLC and the JNPSNC , we
are asking the government to reconvene the
meeting of the committee and within one week ,
let the committee complete its assignment. So ,
the meeting for today (Wednesday ), as far as
we are concerned , is just a kind of an informal
meeting , it is not a normal meeting .
“ But as labour , we are not averse to discussions
and consultations . They have yet to reconvene
the main meeting of the committee . The
minister is free to call us, we will go. We are
hoping that he wants to use it to talk to the two
sides before reconvening the meeting .
“ You can’ t sign any agreement in such kind of
an informal meeting . Until you convene the
meeting of the committee handling the
negotiation of the consequential adjustment,
nothing has happened . Anytime from October
17 , the leadership of labour will give directives
to members nationwide on what to do . ”
Rivers, Osun , Oyo , Anambra workers ready
for strike
Meanwhile , workers in states such as Osun ,
Oyo , Rivers, Kwara and Benue on Wednesday
said they would join any strike declared by the
NLC on the new minimum wage .
Labour is one , we will join strike – Osun NLC
In Osun State , the NLC Secretary , Rufus
Adeyemi , said the state chapter had not started
negotiations with the state government .
He , however, said workers in the state would
join the strike whenever the national
leadership of organised labour directed workers
to go on strike over the new wage .
He said , “ Labour is one and once a directive
like that is received from the national body , we
must comply . So , workers in the state will
definitely comply with the directive of the
national body of the NLC on this issue . ”
We’ re ready – Rivers NLC
In Rivers State , the NLC chairperson , Mrs
Beatrice Itubo, told one of our correspondents
that workers in the state were ready to join
their colleagues in Abuja on strike should the
issue of minimum wage remain unresolved .
She said , “ We will join the strike as soon as
they ( NLC in Abuja ) tell us to do so. We are not
the one to ask ; the national body will ask and
once it (minimum wage ) is implemented , of
course , it spreads down to the states. We are
not operating differently because minimum
wage is minimum wage . ”
It is incumbent on us to join strike – Benue
NLC
Also , the Benue State chairman of the NLC ,
Godwin Anyan, said the state chapter would
not hesitate to mobilise its members for strike .
He said , “ If the Nigeria Labour Congress is
embarking on strike , the national body will
notify all the states. The moment we received
the directive from Abuja , it is our responsibility
to comply . ”
Anyan, however, said that the Benue State
Government had yet to start negotiation with
the union in the state .
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We are moblising against FG – Oyo NLC
In Oyo State , the NLC chairman, Bayo Titilola -
Sodo , said workers were being sensitised to
prepare for the impending strike should the
Federal Government fail to accede to labour
request .
Titilola - Sodo said , “ We are mobilising workers
and the issue is this: we are mobilising
workers , not against the Oyo State Government
but against the Federal Government because
that ’ s where the final decision as regards the
implementation would trickle down to states for
implementation. ”
We are awaiting directive – Akwa Ibom NLC
chair
Similarly , the chairman of the Nigeria Labour
Congress Akwa Ibom State chapter , Sunny
James , said state chapters of the NLC had not
yet received any instruction from the national
body to mobilise workers for the strike .
He said as soon as states were instructed to
mobilise workers they would have no option
but to do so .
“ For now we have not been instructed to do
anything but when we get instructions , we will
do so, ” James said .
Kwara TUC , NLC to meet
In the same vein , both the TUC and the NLC in
Kwara State on Wednesday said they were
mobilising their members for the impending
strike over the N30 , 000 minimum wage .
The state chairman of the TUC , Kolawole
Olumo, told The PUNCH that members of the
executives of the affiliate unions had just risen
from a meeting .
He said , “ We are just rising from the meeting of
the chairmen and secretaries of the affiliate
unions of the TUC and it is in connection with
the proposed strike . We have fixed another
meeting for Monday and we are going to have a
joint meeting with the NLC on Tuesday . ”
Olumo said the negotiations for the new
minimum wage had yet to start in the state
because the Federal Government had not
released the template on which to negotiate the
new minimum wage with the state government .
We’ re ready for strike – Anambra NLC
Also , the NLC in Anambra State said it would
join the strike .
The NLC chairman in the state , Jerry Nnubia ,
said the workers in the state were ready for the
industrial action .
He said , ” The new minimum wage is not a new
issue to workers . So, you don ’ t need a fresh
mobilisation to get them aware of the
situation . ”
Reminded that Governor Willie Obiano had
assured workers that the state would be the
first to implement the new minimum wage ,
Nnubia said , “ You don ’ t implement the new
wage arbitrarily . It ’ s a national issue that must
be resolved nationally before anybody could be
talking about implementation. ”
In his reaction, the Chairman of the NLC in
Cross River State , Benedict Ukpepi, said the
congress would participate in the proposed
nationwide strike over the minimum wage .
Mobilisation national , Ebonyi will join – NLC
Speaking in the same vein , the Chairman of the
NLC in Ebonyi State , Ikechukwu Nwafor , said
the mobilisation of workers by the national
leadership of the labour union was national .
Nwafor , who stated this on Wednesday
said . ” The ongoing mobilisation is for the entire
nation . It is a national mobilisation and not just
for Ebonyi State alone ; it ’ s national . And that
means we will join , should the strike hold. ”
But the Chairman of the NLC in Ekiti State ,
Kolapo Olatunde , said the state council was still
expecting a directive from the national body .
He said , “ We do not work in isolation . Any
directive from the national body will be carried
out at the state level . We have yet to receive
such a directive . Even the directive as to
normal template for the minimum wage has not
been given by the national leadership . We are
awaiting the national template , what is to be
agreed upon, from the national body . ”
Matawalle promised to pay – Zamfara NLC
However , the Zamfara State NLC , Bashir
Mafara , told The PUNCH that the congress had
yet to receive any information on the issue .
“ We have not been informed or officially
communicated to on the strike by the national
leaders , ” he said .
The chairman further explained that , as soon as
they got any directive from Abuja , they would
convene a meeting to discuss it .
He said , “ Governor Bello Matawalle has
promised to pay the new wage , what he is
waiting for is the table on how to go about its
implementation. ”
Copyright PUNCH . |
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