Organised Labour threatens nationwide strike over delayed MOU with FG

The Labour Council is frustrated with the federal government’s lack of progress on the agreements made in the Memorandum of Understanding to avert a nationwide strike.

The PUNCH reported that local chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress warned that workers across the country would be mobilised to strike if the deal wasn’t implemented by the October 30 deadline.

The NLC’s Director of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, was asked yesterday if Labour was happy with the implementation of the MoU. He responded, “No, we are not. The government could improve and speed things up. A few days ago, we made a public statement detailing our grievances with the Minister of Labour and Employment.

On October 1, the Federal Government and the national leadership of the NLC and TUC reached a deal to pay all federal workers N35,000 per month starting in September, until a new national minimum wage was signed into law.

The salary award was to be given to federal employees for six months, and the resolution encouraged states to do the same.

On October 3, unions threatened to call for a statewide strike, but the threat was withdrawn after an agreement was reached that required the wage award, cash transfer, and other measures to be executed within 30 days of the MoU’s signing.

Only a small fraction of the MoU’s 15 criteria had been met by the government.

Work has reportedly begun on constructing the state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide, and the federal government has ordered the payment of the N35,000 wage award and provision of 55,000 Compressed Natural Gas conversion kits to launch the autogas conversion programme.

Ogun State TUC Chairman Akeem Lasisi, however, has warned that if the federal and state governments do not comply with the resolutions agreed upon with organised Labour by October 30, the union may be forced to declare strike action.

He said that the union’s decision on whether or not to go on strike will be based on the results of consultation meetings with other union organisations and an assessment of the government’s attempts to fulfil its half of the contract.

The head of the TUC told our correspondent yesterday that the federal government is responsible for implementing most of the agreements. The payment of the salary award is the only one that must be prioritised by the state and local government.

The administration of Ogun State, Nigeria, has announced a further N10,000 cash prize. The declaration was not the result of talks between the government and labour unions. We applaud the government’s initiative on this matter. The organization’s top brass will speak with government officials to push for the N35,000 wage increase.

There is protocol involved in declaring a trade dispute; after October 30, we will convene the appropriate organ meeting to assess progress to date and discuss whether or not to declare a trade dispute.

Hameed Ademola, Lasisi’s equivalent at the NLC, made it clear that if the government did not meet the union’s requests, the union will follow the orders of its national leadership.

He declared, “This is purely a national issue and we shall follow any instruction given to the leadership of the state council.”

The NLC branch in Kano State has indicated it will wait for the federal government to implement the wage award before deciding what to do next.

Kabiru Inuwa, the head of state, said, “We shall wait to see if the federal government implements the wage award to its workers because we don’t want to say the action we will take until after we’re sure of what the federal government does.”

He said the union had written to the state administration demanding that the salary award be implemented immediately for state workers but that the state government had not yet responded.

You’re probably aware that we sent a letter to the state government demanding that our members be paid their wage award, but that we haven’t heard back from them yet. We have yet to get an invitation or a reply to our letter from the government. But until we know what the federal government does, we will wait. If the state government does not pay the salary award to our members, we will pursue further action.

In a similar vein, Ibrahim Fika, the General Secretary of the NLC in Gombe State, said that the state’s chapter had given four requests and that industrial action would follow if the state government did not meet them.

His list of demands includes universal access to palliative care and the N35,000 prize as well as biometric attendance and payment of all arrears of the 2019 minimum salary for local government employees.

We have numerous problems in Gombe, but these are our top priorities, he said. “Failure to meet these demands, labour will declare industrial action in Gombe State.”

The leadership of the NLC and TUC in Benue State commented on the delay in implementing the demands by saying they were ready to follow any order from their national secretariats.

Terungwa Igbe, chair of the NLC, and Gideon Akaa, chair of the TUC, both said over the phone that they would follow any order from their respective unions.

Igbe said that the state government had not responded to his letter requesting that the N35,000 pay award be put into effect.

After sending a joint letter to the state administration about the N35,000 pay award, we have heard nothing back from them. When the union calls for a strike, we have no choice but to go on strike,” Igbe stated.

The head of the TUC said, “As far as I know, there has been no response to either the N35,000 wage award or palliatives.” Meanwhile, reports in the press indicated that some of the N2bn relief would be allocated to covering the costs of students’ participation in standardised tests administered outside of the state. Workers’ kids will be better off in the long run, in our opinion.

When asked what the union plans to do if the government doesn’t live up to its end of the bargain, Akaa replied, “Whatever our mother union directs is what we are going to carry out.”

Sokoto State unions, however, have announced that they will resume talks with the state government about enforcing the MoU with the federal government.

We would like to meet this week to discuss the concerns we highlighted in our letter. The governor is aware of all the problems. Even if all our demands are not met at the state level, we would wait for the order of the national headquarters on when to launch strike,” Hamisu Hussain, the TUC secretary, said.

The administration of Kwara State has yet to pay the N35,000 prize to the state’s workers, according to our checks.

Yesterday, Tunde Joseph, chairman of the TUC in the state, stated that the government had not responded to the request letter addressed to it.

On October 4 we sent a letter to Governor Mallam AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq about the prizes for workers, and last week we sent a reminder, but we haven’t heard back from the government yet. Joseph said, “We are still waiting for the government to respond to our request on the awards,” adding that the union’s national leadership will decide whether or not to go on strike if the authorities refused to follow the agreement.

Saheed Olayinka, chairman of the NLC in that state, added that official communication between the state administration and organised labour had not yet taken place.

It would depend on their decision at the national level, he said, adding that they haven’t invited them for a meeting yet.

Dauda Shuaibu, chairman of the NLC in Bauchi State, expressed frustration with the dragging execution of the MoU and warned that workers in the state would be forced to participate in any strike called by the national union’s top brass.

None of the commitments made by the state administration have been met. You are aware that there are both broad and narrow demands; for example, the narrow demand that state governments begin debating compensation increases.

We contacted the state government through written correspondence, but received no response. We sent a reminder letter, but they never called or followed up with us, he complained.

When asked if they were still committed to the October 30 deadline, he answered, “You know that the strike is a worldwide strike, so if after the expiration of the ultimatum, they give a directive on the strike, we would join. While we wait for instructions from the national secretariat, we will not deviate from the October 30 deadline.

The new minimum wage is not scheduled to go into effect until 2024, hence the NLC spokesman Upah has stated that forming a minimum wage committee is not a pressing concern at this time.

The law does not mandate a minimum wage increase until next year. There is, however, no need to worry about forming a new committee just yet,” he said.

After the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit was eliminated, NLC President Joe Ajaero said that a rise in the minimum wage to either N100,000 or N200,000 was on the table.

The head of the NLC has stated that several criteria will be taken into account when determining a new minimum wage.

Inflation and the cost of living are two factors that would be discussed. He continued, “Everything else would factor into it.” We wouldn’t go and beg for $65,000 in Niger. Because N65,000 is equivalent to around $70, which is below minimum wage, we would aim for a more reasonable sum,” he added.