Minimum Wage: NLC, TUC may resume strike Tuesday

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Following the expiration of the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government (FG) by organised labour to review and enact a new minimum wage law, the union announced it might resume its relaxed strike.

Chris Onyeka, an Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), stated on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday that if the FG and National Assembly fail to act on workers’ demands by Tuesday, the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) may resume their strike.

Onyeka said the TUC and NLC would convene to decide on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action that was paused last week.

Recall that NRTC reported that labour suspended its strike on June 3 to allow for proper negotiations with the government, following an agreement reached with FG representatives on June 4.

Labor is demanding a new minimum wage of N494,000 and the reversal of the hike in electricity tariffs.

Onyeka stated that the one-week grace period given to the FG will expire at midnight on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

He added that labor would not accept a proposed minimum wage of N62,000 or N100,000, insisting on N250,000, the latest demand at the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage on Friday, as the living wage for an average Nigerian worker.

According to Onyeka, labor will not accept the government’s latest offer of N62,000 or the N100,000 proposal suggested by some individuals and economists.

He said, “We have never considered accepting N62,000 or any other wage that we know is below what we know is able to take Nigerian workers home. We will not negotiate a starvation wage.

“We have never contemplated N100,000 let alone of 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 market place; realities of things we buy every day: bag of rice, yam, garri, and all of that.”