The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has
threatened to embark on has threatened a nationwide strike from May 1
next year if the federal government refused implementation of the
N56,000 new national minimum wage it proposed.
He made the announcement in a statement on Wednesday by NLC President, Ayuba Wabba during a meeting in Abuja.
“The issue of minimum wage remains
sacrosanct because of the fact that by law and practice, the review is
due and overdue. I have said clearly that we cannot guarantee any
industrial peace any longer if necessary steps are not taken by
government to try to resolve this issue before the next May Day.
“This is very clear because as we
said, we have sent formal notice of demand as required by law to
government to try to constitute the committee.
“Essentially, the committee to
dialogue and negotiate the minimum wage which is supposed to be
tripartite has not been set up. If it is set up, all of you will be
aware of the membership and also their terms of reference and the
timeline given to them to actually dispose with this very vital issue.
“The issue is so sensitive because of
the fact that a lot of our members have actually been subjected to a
lot of difficulties because the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerian
workers has been reduced to virtually nothing because of the inflation
in the system, the free fall of the naira and to compound it with high
cost of goods and services.
“More so, most workers now cannot
meet up with their daily needs, they can’t pay their rents, they can’t
send their children to school.
“It is even more compounded because
cost of goods and services has gone up. So, side by side with the issue
of fighting corruption is also for workers to be paid a decent wage that
they can be able to have a meaningful living, so, this is the
challenge.
“They must see reason to try to
accommodate it because the fact is very obvious that it is legitimately
due both in law and practice and therefore this is our approach.
“Therefore let us not mix two things,
is there a resistant to say that there will be no review of minimum
wage? I am not sure I have heard that because by our constant
interaction, the government has through the Minister of Labour said they
are also willing to review the minimum wage.
“As I said earlier, we have made a
formal demand, written and therefore if there is the need to review the
template, we will do that at the table but that will have to be jointly.
What we have submitted is N56,000 and therefore that N56,000 is still
valid,” said the statement.
