The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has revealed that the Buhari led Federal Government will meet with state governors to discuss the possibility meeting the N30,000 minimum wage demands of organised Labour.
The organised labour is threatening to embark on strike action on November 6th, 2018 over minimum wage and other issues.
Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Ngige insisted that the government will not fail to implement the ‘No work, no pay’ rule. He said that the rule started under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to Ngige, no final decision has been taken by the government on the proposed N30, 000 minimum wage.
NLC serves Buhari strike notice- Labour insist on November 6 shutdown date
Members of the organised labour represented by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have served the Buhari led Federal Government notice of industrial action scheduled to begin on November 6 unless the government agree to its N30000 minimum wage demands.
Rising from its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the NLC said workers would not be intimidated by any threat of “no work, no pay”.
It accused Minister of Labour Senator Chris Ngige of feeding the public with half-truth about the work of the tripartite committee on the new National Minimum Wage and misleading the government into gagging workers and forcing them to become slaves, rather than workers.
It noted that the government was trying to return the country to the dark days of the Abacha military regime by attempting to force workers not to protest inhuman treatment through nonpayment of salaries.
The NEC, which is the highest decision-making organ of the NLC, said the recent antics of Minister of Labour and Employment was anti-labour and anti-workers, especially with regards to the minister’s utterances, which it deemed as an act of bad faith intended to scuttle the work of the committee on the new national minimum wage.
The Congress accused the Minister of Labour and Employment of trying to twist the truth by misinforming the public that the meeting of October 4 and 5, 2018 was inconclusive as the members of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage did not agree on a figure.
It rejected and condemned the minister’s claims in the media that negotiations were still ongoing on the issue of a new National Minimum Wage, which implementation is already long overdue.
The communique signed by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba and General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, argued that fixing of tenure for workers holding union executive positions in contravention of the provisions of ILO Convention 87; and the prohibition or exclusion of non-card carrying members of trade unions from leading or being part of negotiation delegations of trade unions were reminiscent of the Abacha military era.
According to the NLC NEC, the latest posture by government was calculated to cow workers into submission as well as stop labour from protesting government’s foot dragging on the new national minimum wage and an assault on workers with the “no work, no pay” clause in the Trade Disputes Act.
It resolved to “organise a national day of mobilisation and sensitisation rallies for workers to show their outrage and mourning in the 36 states of the federation and FCT on Tuesday.