The Federal Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with organized labor to avert a planned nationwide walkout, but the agreement has been implemented slowly, to the dismay of the union.
In light of the fact that they had started mobilizing their members nationwide, the state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress warned that they would be forced to downsize if the agreement is not implemented by the deadline of October 30.
The NLC’s Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, responded, “No, we are not,” when asked on Tuesday if Labour was happy with how the Memorandum of Understanding had been implemented. Better, quicker action may be taken by the government. Our discontent with the Minister of Labour and Employment was conveyed through a statement we released a few days ago.
In anticipation of the enactment of a new national minimum wage, the national leadership of the NLC and TUC secured a deal with the federal government on October 1st, wherein all federal workers would get N35,000.
States were urged to offer similar benefits to their workforces, and the resolution stipulated that the pay award would be paid to federal employees for a period of six months.
The unions had threatened to go on a national strike on October 3, but the action was put on hold with the caveat that the pay award, cash transfer, and a few other resolutions had to be put into effect within thirty days of the Memorandum of Understanding’s signing.
Of the fifteen demands in the Memorandum of Understanding, it was said that the administration had only carried out a few.
Along with the construction of state-of-the-art CNG stations across the country, among other things, the Federal Government had reportedly ordered the payment of the N35,000 wage award and made provisions for 55,000 compressed natural gas conversion kits to initiate the autogas conversion program.
Akeem Lasisi, the chairman of the Ogun State TUC, warned that if the federal and state governments did not carry out the provisions of the resolutions reached with organized labor, the union could be compelled to announce an industrial action beyond the October 30 deadline.
The outcome of the consultations with other union organs and an assessment of the government’s attempts to uphold its part of the agreement would determine whether or not to declare a walkout, he clarified.
“The Federal Government is responsible for implementing the majority of the agreements,” stated the TUC leader in a Tuesday interview with our correspondent. Only the payment of the salary award is vital to the state and municipal governments.
The continuation of the N10,000 financial award has been announced by the Ogun State administration. Organizational labor and the government did not negotiate the announcement. The government’s initiative is what we find admirable. In order to guarantee the N35,000 pay award’s execution, the leadership will meet with government representatives.
“The process of declaring a trade dispute is as follows: we will convene the relevant organ meeting to assess our progress and explore the options of extending the deadline until October 30th.”
Meanwhile, Hameed Ademola, Lasisi’s NLC counterpart, only pointed out that in the event that the government did not carry out the labor demands, the union would obey any order from its national leadership.
“We will heed any directive provided to the state council leadership, as this is solely a national matter,” he declared.
The National Labor Council’s Kano State branch declared that it would not decide what to do until the Federal Government really implemented the pay award.
We want to wait to announce the action we would take until we are certain of what the Federal Government does, therefore we will wait to see if it executes the wage award to its workers, said state chairman Kabiru Inuwa.
He stated that although the state government had not yet replied, the union had written to it requesting that the salary award be implemented immediately for all state employees.
We have requested in writing that the state government pay our members’ wage awards, but as of right now, the government has not replied. As of right now, we have not received an invitation from the government or a response. But we’ll keep waiting to find out what the federal government decides to do. So, if the state government does not carry out the pay award to our members, we will adopt the following course of action.
Continuing along these lines, Ibrahim Fika, the general secretary of the Gombe State NLC, stated that the chapter had made four demands and that an industrial action would follow if the state government did not carry them out.
His requests include the N35,000 award for all employees of local government, biometric attendance, and the payment of the unpaid minimum salary for 2019.
“Labour will declare industrial action in Gombe State if these demands are not met. We have many issues in Gombe, but these are our priority areas,” he stated.
The leadership of the TUC and NLC in Benue State commented on the delay in implementing the requests and promised that they would be willing to follow any instructions from their respective unions’ national secretariat.
NLC and TUC chairs, Terungwa Igbe and Gideon Akaa, respectively, stated in separate phone conversations that they would follow any union instruction.
Igbe stated that he had written to the state government requesting that the N35,000 pay award be implemented, but the administration had not replied.
“After sending it a joint letter regarding the N35,000 wage award, we have not heard back from the state government.” We are forced to comply with any strike orders issued by the union, according to Igbe.
As far as the TUC head knew, no one had answered on the N35,000 pay award or palliative care. A portion of the N2 billion palliative will be used, the state administration has agreed, to pay for students’ external exams, according to information obtained by the media in the interim. That will be advantageous, in our opinion, for the workers’ kids.
“We are going to carry out whatever our mother union directs,” Akaa responded when asked about the union’s next course of action in the event that the government fails to uphold the agreement.
The Sokoto State unions did, however, announce that they will shortly pick back up negotiations with the state government about the execution of the Memorandum of Understanding that was struck with the federal government.
In light of some of the concerns brought up in our letter, we want to meet this week. The governor had previously been informed of all the difficulties. Concerning the strike’s restart, TUC secretary Hamisu Hussain revealed, “Even if all of our demands are not satisfied at the state level, we will unquestionably wait for the directive from the national headquarters on when to commence strike.”
Based on checks, the Kwara State government still hadn’t given the workers in the state their N35,000 compensation.
In response to a letter of request, the state’s TUC chairman, Tunde Joseph, acknowledged on Tuesday that the administration had not replied.
We have not received a response from the government to any of the two letters we submitted last week, despite our October 4 letter to Governor Mallam AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq regarding worker rewards. While Joseph noted that the union’s national leadership would decide whether to go on strike in the event that the government refused to carry out the agreement, they were still awaiting a response from the government regarding their request for rewards.
In addition, Saheed Olayinka, the state chairman of the NLC, clarified that the state administration had not yet contacted organized labor.
Despite the fact that they haven’t invited us to a meeting, he noted that our course of action will depend on their decision at the federal level.
Dauda Shuaibu, the NLC Chairman for Bauchi State, lamented the delay in the Memorandum of Understanding’s implementation and said that the state’s employees will be forced to participate in any protest called by the leadership.
Not one of the agreements has been met by the state government. It’s common knowledge that there exist both general and specific demands. The latter pertain specifically to the need for state councils to begin debating compensation increases.
“The state administration didn’t call us after we sent them a letter. He expressed regret, saying, “We sent a reminder, but they didn’t call us and didn’t take any action.
He responded, “You know that the strike is a nationwide strike, so if after the expiration of the ultimatum they give a directive on the strike, we will join,” when asked if they would still adhere to the October 30 deadline. Until we receive instructions from the national secretariat, we will adhere to the deadline on October 30. We will carry out their instructions.
On the other hand, since the new minimum wage is not expected to be implemented until 2024, NLC spokesman Upah has stated that the formation of a minimum wage committee is not yet a problem.
Not until the following year is the minimum wage legally required. It cannot, therefore, be a problem at this time to form a new committee, he said.
In the wake of Premium Motor Spirit’s subsidy elimination, NLC President Joe Ajaero declared that negotiations could raise the minimum wage to N200,000 or N100,000.
In determining a new minimum wage, the head of the NLC stated that numerous criteria would be taken into account.
Things like inflation and the cost of living would come up when we talked about it. He continued, “Everything else would factor into it. “We wouldn’t go and demand N65,000 from you.” Since N65,000 is roughly $70 and does not meet the minimum wage, we would aim for a reasonable amount, he continued.
