Ahead of the meeting between the Federal Government and the organised labour scheduled to hold today (Monday), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared that the government must meet its demands to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal or it will be left with no other option than to embark on industrial action.
The union threatened that it would not hesitate to call out workers for industrial action, adding that it only suspended its planned strike.
It claimed that Nigerians were suffering intolerable hardship as a result of the high cost of petrol and urged the government to respond quickly to provide palliatives since the NLC anticipated an increase in the minimum wage from N30,000 to N150,000.
The Federal Government and labor unions convened on June 5, 2023, and decided to meet again on June 19 to decide on the framework for putting the resolutions reached into action.
The former Speaker of the House of Representatives and current Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, who led the government side, had disclosed this at the end of the meeting between labour and government representatives at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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According to him, the June 5 meeting agreed on a seven-point resolution to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, on Nigerians.
‘The Federal Government, the TUC, and the NLC to establish a joint committee to review the proposal for any wage increase or award and establish a framework and timeline for implementation.
“The Federal Government, the TUC and the NLC to review the World Bank Financed Cash transfer scheme and propose the inclusion of low-income earners in the programme.
‘The Federal Government, the TUC and the NLC to revive the CNG conversion programme earlier agreed with Labour centres in 2021 and work out detailed implementation and timing,’ Gbajabiamila had stated.
But when contacted by reporters to speak on the expectations of labour from the meeting scheduled to hold today (Monday), the Vice President, NLC, Adewale Adeyanju, said a lot of things had been presented by labour unions, stressing that the government should not act funny.
‘There are a lot of things that labour has been putting before the government. The refineries need to be revamped. We cannot continue to import refined petroleum products and be spending on subsidies all the time.
‘Labour has its set of demands and by the time we meet with the government tomorrow we will list them out again,’ he stated.
Asked to state what action the NLC would take should the government fail to give in to the demands of labour, considering the plight currently faced by Nigerians with respect to the removal of subsidy, Adeyanju replied, ‘You know we only suspended our strike as a result of the need to meet on this.
‘So the government should know that things are becoming difficult and they (the government) should not decide to do anything funny. The strike was only suspended. It was an ultimatum that was given out and it (strike) was suspended.
‘So let’s hear what the government has for us and then we will know what to tell our members. It is about the lives of the people. Let’s meet them tomorrow and then labour will come out with its position.’
Adeyanju, however, expressed optimism that the meeting would be fruitful and insisted that the NLC would not want the government to behave funny.