Given that organized labor and the Federal Government reached a consensus on Monday, there are possibilities that the union may call off its strike over the new minimum wage.
Following a six-hour meeting in Abuja, the Federal Government announced President Bola Tinubu’s intention to increase the N60,000 minimum salary.
The goal of the meeting, which took place in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Monday evening, was to break the deadlock and put an end to the strikes that had crippled numerous sector around the country.
There were several important resolutions achieved after lengthy discussion.
According to the agreement, “the Tripartite Committee will convene daily for the next week to finalize an agreeable National Minimum Wage, and the President of Nigeria, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is committed to establishing a National Minimum Wage higher than N60,000.”
It was also agreed upon by organized labor that “no worker would face victimization as a consequence of participating in the industrial action, and that it would immediately hold meetings of its organs to consider this new offer.”
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris and Minister of State for Labor and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha signed these resolutions on behalf of the Federal Government.
Festus Osifo, the president of the Trade Union Congress, and Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, represented organized labor.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to revive the deadlocked minimum wage negotiations, the Federal Government will begin talks with organized Labor on Tuesday (today).
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday in the midst of the nationwide strike that closed down the states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Ekpo Nta, the secretary of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, signed the invitation to the meeting.
The invitation to the labor leaders stated, “”I respectfully invite you to attend the 8th meeting of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage scheduled as follows, Venue: Nicon Luxury Hotel, Area 11, Abuja; Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2024; Time: prompt 10 a.m.
“The minutes of the 7th meeting, the draft agenda for the 8th meeting and the Zoom link for virtual attendance will be forwarded to you in due course. Regards.’’
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, expressed concern about the strike’s debilitating effects and once more urged for more minimum wage negotiations on Monday.
In what he called “a very passionate, heartfelt and deeply considered appeal” to organised labour, the information minister said the cost of the proposed minimum wage would total N9.5tn annually for the Federal Government.
He said, “As we had explained earlier, Labour’s current proposal of N494,000 is an increase of 1,547 per cent on the existing wage and translates into an annual wage bill of N9.5trn for the Federal Government of Nigeria.’’
Calling the labor unions back to the negotiation table, the minister assured them that the Federal Government would be available to continue the discussion.
Idris stated, “Yesterday (Sunday), the leadership of the National Assembly met with the unions. Today, we have offered yet another invitation to the unions to meet with us and continue our discussions.
“We will continue to engage and continue to make ourselves available in the context of these negotiations on behalf of the Nigerian people.”
Speaking on the strike, the Nigerian Labour Party advised the unions to hold fresh talks with the government over a new minimum wage rather than starting an industrial action.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, Obiora Ifoh, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, stated that the labor’s demand for a minimum salary of N494,000 was unreasonable.
Ifoh stated that going on strike would only lead to greater misery and hardship, hence it was not an option.
He stated, “Our immediate reaction is that organised labour should not throw Nigerians into more hardship.
“Nigerians are already grappling with a lot of challenges and we do not need to exacerbate the situation. I think the demand for N494,000 minimum wage is unrealistic. It is really unrealistic.
“It is a figure that cannot be sustained because it will imply that Nigeria will take all that money it has to pay the civil servants.”
In the meantime, there was widespread adherence to the industrial action that the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress had announced.
After the tripartite committee failed to agree on a new minimum wage, workers locked down banks, hospitals, airlines, schools, and governmental offices, paralyzing economic and commercial activities. This led to the leadership of the labor movement organizing the strike.
On Friday, Organized Labour announced an ongoing nationwide strike in protest of the Federal Government’s unwillingness to increase its proposed minimum wage above N60,000.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, declared that the government’s refusal to reverse the removal of the power sector subsidy and the hike in electricity tariffs, along with the failed negotiations between organized labor and the government, was the reason behind the strike.
The unions had set a deadline of May 31, 2024, for the completion of the next discussion of minimum wage.
While the labor unions lowered their demand to N494,000 from an earlier planned N497,000, the government increased its minimum wage offer to N60,000. The labor leaders initially requested for N615,000.
Across Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Niger, Sokoto, Kano and other States, the strike was effective with schools, banks, government offices and public utilities locked down.
In Osogbo, Osun State, the power station and Osun Government Secretariat were shut.
The Government Secretariat and Osogbo Regional Transmission Company were under lock and key, thus a large number of security personnel were deployed there.
Speaking to journalists at the gate, Mr. Musibau Okunloye, Chairman of the Lagos Generation and Transmission Council, implored the Federal Government to undo the most recent increase in the price of power and take further steps to improve the welfare of the nation’s labor force.
Speaking to reporters outside the gate, Mr. Musibau Okunloye, Chairman of the Lagos Generation and Transmission Council, implored the Federal Government to undo the most recent increase in electricity tariff and take further steps to improve the welfare of the workers in the country.
He said, “Well, my appeal to the Federal government is just the same as what the Nigeria Labour Congress and TUC have said. They should listen to Labour. Labour is a force to be reckoned with.’’
At the Asubiaro Specialist Hospital, there were no activities. Private schools continued with business as usual, but public schools were closed and students who had already arrived were sent home.
While several banks along Osogbo/Gbongan Road received customers, some did not open for business.
Official activities were likewise paralyzed at Ondo State and local government secretariats on Monday.
In a similar vein, there was no operation at any public school, including the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital in Akure.
Victor Amoko, the state’s NLC chairman, stated that the public and private sector had essentially shut down and that there had been total cooperation with the strike.
Amoko stated, “We have made a good start. If you go out there, you will find that the majority of our public and private offices are closed, and there is no work. Our construction chairmen are here to provide us with updates.”
In the same vein, the state TUC chairman, Clement Fatuwase, explained that the level of compliance in both public and private sectors in the state was encouraging, urging members to unite in the fight for the betterment of workers.
“The message is, let’s fight this once and for all and win it once and for all. Although we met with the Ondo state government yesterday (Sunday) and had extensive discussions about the strike, we granted them an exemption to ensure the completion of the WAEC and INEC officials’ work,” he explained.
Similar circumstances existed in Sokoto, when a large number of banks, public schools, and offices followed the strike directive.
Teachers at the Federal Government College turned their students back.
According to Hamisu Hussaini, the state’s NLC secretary, labor officials went round to guarantee that the strike was carried out completely.
There was only partial compliance at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital since there were not enough doctors to care for patients.
Prof. Muhammad Almustapha, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities at Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto, declared that the union would join the strike.
He said, “I want to assure you that we are joining the strike, we just received the letter from the national headquarters and we are having our congress any movement from now.
“All I can tell you is that as a bonafide member of the NLC, we are joining the strike action immediately after the congress, which is our tradition.”
Similar to Niger State, where labor leaders forced the closure of state and federal secretariats, banks, schools, hospitals, and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Niger State was also paralyzed by the strike.
Additionally, the banks turned away clients who came to conduct business and closed their offices.
A resident, Aliyu Tanimu, applauded the commitment of the NLC and the TUC to the workers’ welfare.
“This development is highly impressive, considering the government is not ready to take necessary action. With the current economic hardship, how can N60,000 sustain a family?’’ he asked.
Meanwhile, the NLC Chairman in Kebbi State, Murtala Usman, confirmed that there was high compliance with the action in the state.
Usman said he led the NLC executive members to monitor the level of compliance, describing it as impressive.
“As you know, today is the first day but I can tell you that the level of compliance was impressive. I am sure by tomorrow going forward it will be better than this.
“The hospitals were allowed to operate skeletal operations due to some of the patients on admission, but I can tell you that things will improve as we go on,” he added.
Banks, schools, hospitals and public offices were also shut down in Ogun State.
The Chairman, TUC, Ogun State, Akeem Lasisi, described the strike as very successful, saying that the compliance has been total and quite encouraging.
Lasisi said, “The level of compliance as far as the strike is concerned is total. The schools, hospitals, local government secretariats, the state and even federal secretariats are shut down.
“We only allow some schools to open because of the students writing the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, so the strike in Ogun State has been quite successful.
“We, however, sincerely hope that the Federal Government will be reasonable enough to dialogue with workers to get this challenge resolved once and for all in favour of the workers. The truth is that the suffering is much and the government needs to respond positively to our modest requests”.
