No minimum wage strike today—Ajero

 

Maureen Aguta

 

 

President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero has declared that Organised Labour would not go on strike today (Tuesday) regarding the current new minimum wage dispute with the government.

The NLC president made the decision known while speaking yesterday at the International Labour Conference taking place in Geneva, Switzerland.

​Giving the reason for the decision, Ajaero said Labour would not go on strike yet because the figures are currently on the table of President Bola Tinubu and a feedback is being expected.

​Citing examples of previous administrations, Ajaero said it is still possible for the President to increase the proposed figure before him.

However, he called out Governors who have declared they can’t pay the proposed N62,000 new minimum wage, which is currently what the federal government is offering, and labelled them as lazy.

In his words, “We cannot declare strike now because the figures are with the President.”

“During the tenure of the immediate past President, the figure that was proposed to him was N27,000 by the tripartite committee but he increased it to N30,000. We are hopeful that this President will do the right thing. The President had noted that the difference between N62,000 and N250,000 is a wide gulf.

“How can any governor say he cannot pay? They cannot also be calling for the decentralisation of the minimum wage. Are there wages decentralised? Governors whose states are not contributing a dime to the national purse and who generate pitiable internally-generated revenue (IGR) are collecting the same amount as governors whose states are generating billions of dollars into the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, (FAAC). They should decentralise their salaries and emoluments first”.

“So, where is the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki getting his money from? He is paying N70,000 minimum wage. This is the type of governor that should be emulated and not the lazy ones”, he further stated.

This coming as the Organised Labour comprising of NLC and TUC has declared that it won’t accept the Federal Government’s offer of N62, 000 and the N100,000 minimum wage proposal by some individuals in the country.

The unions had demanded N250,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

“We felt that with the current economic hardship and the difficulty in the land, the sum of N250,000 should be what will be okay for the minimum wage,” the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, told journalists in Abuja on Friday, June 7, 2024.

Osifo made this known after the federal government said it offered the Labour N62, 000 as the new national minimum wage.

Speaking in an interview with Channels TV on Monday, June 10, the Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, said the unions won’t accept N62,000 or N100,000 as the minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

Onyeka described the minimum wage proposal as a “starvation wage”, saying: “We have never considered accepting N62, 000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know can take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.

“We have never contemplated N100, 000, let alone N62, 000. We are still at N250, 000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation.

“We are not just driven by frivolities but the realities of the marketplace, realities of things we buy every day: a bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”

The NLC official further disclosed that the Organised Labour would meet on Tuesday, June 11, to decide on the resumption of the nationwide strike if the federal government and National Assembly fail to act on workers’ demands.