Minimum Wage: NLC, TUC ‘relax’ strike for one week

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The organised labour unions have suspended their ongoing strike over the new minimum wage and the hike in electricity tariffs for one week.

The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday after a joint extraordinary national executive council meeting of the unions.

Earlier, NRTC reported that the unions, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC, reached an agreement with the federal government on Monday, hours after the strike began.

A communique will be issued shortly to this effect.

The labour’s actions followed the expiration of the May 31 deadline for an agreement on a new minimum wage. They had been locked in negotiations with the federal government.

During the failed talks with the government, labour rejected government offers, the latest being ₦60,000. They pulled out of negotiations, insisting on N494,000 as the new minimum wage.

In a swift response to halt the strike, the federal government and labour leaders held an hours-long meeting that extended into the night at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume.

In attendance were the Minister of Labour and Employment (State), the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, TUC’s Festus Osifo, and the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, among others.