Representatives of the Nigeria's organised labour on Sunday, 4th November 2018 shunned the meeting called by the Federal Government (FG) as part of efforts to stop the looming nationwide strike instigated mainly by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
It would be recalled that the unions’ planned indefinite strike scheduled to commence on Tuesday, 6th November 2018 was called to protest government’s failure to meet the labour’s demand for a new national minimum wage.
While state governors had proposed a new N22, 500 from the current N18, 000 minimum wage, the labour unions demand at least N30, 000.
Some government officials however attended the meeting hosted by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Gida Mustapha which held behind closed door.
Rostrum gathered that those at the meeting included Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige; Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed; officials of the National Salaries Income and Wage Commission, and some permanent secretaries.
Mr. Mustapha, who spoke before the meeting went into closed session, said the tripartite committee on National Minimum Wage set up by the FG would be concluding works on its report on Monday, 5th November 2018.
According to him, the FG was waiting for the report so that it could commence processes leading to the enactment of law on the new minimum wage.
He said the report would still go through the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Council of State before an Executive Bill would be sent to the National Assembly on the issue.
Mr. Mustapha stated that many states were still finding it difficult to pay the current minimum wage, recalling that the FG instituted bailout for the purpose of helping the states to meet up.
“The only outstanding issues left for the committee was to harmonise the 15th chapter of the report, harmonise figures and submit report to the President. I assure you that government is waiting for the report and will immediately set up processes required for implementation.
"Hopefully, their work would be concluded when they meet tomorrow (today) and append their signatures to the report.
“They will then transmit to me and I will seek an audience with the President to present it to him. The report will go through NEC, Council of State before a draft executive bill will be sent to NASS. I am awaiting the report of the committee. They will meet tomorrow (today) at 11am.
Rostrum further gathered that the two officials of the labour unions deliberately shunned the scheduled meeting with the government.
One of the unions' leader, who insisted on not being named, said “Our leaders got information that the government team shamelessly wanted to serve us a so-called court suit as part of measures to frustrate our planned strike.
"This strike is on behalf of Nigerian workers and the government has been deceiving us. We saw the handwriting on the wall especially after the warning strike.” the whistle blower landed.
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