Organised Labour in Nigeria, yesterday, handed down a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to ensure completion of works on the new national minimum wage or risk unprecedented industrial unrest in the country.
At a joint briefing in Lagos, leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and United Labour Congress, ULC, warned that at the expiration of the ultimatum, they could no longer guarantee industrial peace in the country.
Efforts to reach the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, last night, proved futile as he neither replied calls put through his known mobile phone lines nor the text messages sent to the lines.
The Director of Press, Ministry of Labour and Emplotment, Mr. Samuel Olowoekere, also failed to respond to calls made to his phone lines.
They accused the federal government, particularly the Minister of Labour and Employment, of frustrating and delaying the process of arriving at a new minimum wage workers had been expecting since 2015.
The labour leaders in a statement signed by President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, lamented that the tripartite committee set up by government had yet to finish its job, having failed to agree on a figure, following government’s refusal to present any.
He argued that, while the committee had concluded its deliberations, the Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige, told the committee that the federal government needed to consult more before coming up with its own figure.
According to him, this negates the earlier agreement to work within its timeline.
The Labour statement
The statement read: “This press conference is made inevitable by the latest provocative statement by the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, who said a few days ago that the committee should adjourn indefinitely to enable him do further consultations with the government.
“His pronouncement came at a time the committee was finalizing its work of arriving at a definite figure for submission to government.
“We view his latest pronouncement with great concern, suspicion and outrage. This new antic certainly is not acceptable to Nigerian workers who had expected a new national minimum wage since 2016 but who out of uncommon sacrifice and patriotism, hearkened to government’s appeal and the process was delayed.
“You may wish to recall that the National Minimum Wage Committee was inaugurated in November 2017 but commenced work in March 2018 with timelines to deliver on its mandate of arriving at a new national minimum wage in August/September 2018.
