BREAKING: LABOUR CALLS OFF NATIONWIDE STRIKE
BREAKING:
LABOUR CALLS OFF NATIONWIDE STRIKE
The organized labour has suspended its planned strike. This is
coming after marathon meetings with the Federal government.
UPDATE:
A Tripartite Committee set up by the Federal Government agreed on
N30,000 new minimum wage. Nigeria Labour Congress President, Ayuba Waba (m)
addressing a rally on Good Governance before a delegation took a list of Labour
demands to Ag. President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 09/02/2017 At the end of the first
meeting of the tripartite committee set up to arrive at an agreeable minimum
wage template, Chairperson of the committee and former Head of the Civil
Service of the Federation, Ms Ama People had said while the federal government
insisted on N24,000, organized labour maintained its earlier stance of N30,
000.
She however said the government pleaded with labour to call off
its planned strike “We have concluded and we have a little challenge with what
we call Chapter 5 of our report, that is where we have the numbers and the
figures we used for the negotiations and the figures that we concluded with and
the committee has two figures: the N24, 000 suggested by the federal government
and the N30, 000 given by the organized labour.
“There is no stalemate. We have finished and we have signed it but
we are insisting that the strike must be called off. There are still two
figures, N24, 000 and N34, 000. You know that labour came up with a figure of
N66, 500 but when we put all that together with the figure we got from the
states…so, we put all that in a basket plus the initial figure that the federal
government recommended which was N20, 700. We put them together in a basket and
came up with four scenarios, we worked with one of the scenarios and that was
how we agreed on that N24, 000 and N30, 000 respectively”, said Ms People.
Asked on what the committee was going to submit, she said both
figures would be forwarded to the president. On his part, Labour and Employment
minister, Chris Ngige said the committee was working to secure an appointment
with President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that its resolution would be passed to
the Federal Executive Council, then the National Economic Council and later the
National Council of State after which the president would initiate an Executive
Bill to be transmitted yo the National Assembly.
He said; “We are making progress. The governors’ figure should be
the figure of the federal government. We are just trying to carry them along.
That is why we made the discussions ‘tripartite plus’. It is just because we
want to carry them along, otherwise the federal government speaks for
governments. Yes, the figures are standing but we know that there are other
processes. It has to go through the Federal Executive Council, the National Executive
Council and the National Council of State, then an Executive Bill will be
transmitted to the National Assembly”. Asked if the two figures would pass
through those processes,
he said; “Yes, because the federal government figure is noted and
is also weighty because it says that it depends on the ability to pay,
affordability and sustainability. “Labour are quiet satisfied, we are doing the
needful, we have passed the rubicon. The only aspect of it now that we need to
do is to fix an appointment for the handing over of the report to Mr President.
We are reconvening tonight because that appointment has to be
gotten because the president has gone home. He is not just sitting down in the
office. If we get the appointment now, we will reconvene later and agree on how
to proceed. “The governors have no choice now because they have attached
themselves to us because we are the supreme sovereign, they are minor
sovereigns”, he added.
On whether the strike would go on as planned on Tuesday, he said,
“no”, referring all enquiries to labour leaders. All the labour leaders at the
meeting however declined media enquiries, saying they were on break and the
meeting would reconvene later tonight.
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