The organised labour has threatened to embark on a strike due to the slow implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding it signed with the Federal Government to avert its planned nationwide strike.
The state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress said failure to implement the agreement before the October 30 deadline might leave them with no choice but to down tools, noting that they had commenced mobilisation of their members across the country.
Asked on Tuesday whether Labour was satisfied with the implementation of the MoU, the Head of Information and Public Affairs of the NLC, Benson Upah, said, “No, we are not. The government could do better and faster. We issued a statement a few days ago in which we expressed our displeasure with the Minister of Labour and Employment.”
Speaking with newsmen on Tuesday, the TUC chairman said “Implementation of most of the agreements lies on the table of the Federal Government. The only one that is critical for the state and local government is the payment of the wage award.
“In Ogun State, the government has announced the extension of the N10,000 financial award. The announcement is not a product of negotiation between organised labour and the government. It is the initiative of the government which we appreciate. The leadership will meet with the government to ensure the implementation of the N35,000 wage award.
“There is a process in declaring a trade dispute: We shall call the necessary organ meeting to review how far we have gone and at the same time consider the possibility of declaring a trade dispute after the October 30 deadline.”
Lasisi’s NLC counterpart, Hameed Ademola, simply noted that the union would comply with any directive from its national leadership if the government failed to implement the labour demands.
“This is purely a national issue and we shall follow any instruction given to the state council leadership,” he stated.
The Kano State chapter of the NLC said it would wait to see the implementation of the wage award by the Federal Government before knowing the right steps to take.
The state Chairman, Kabiru Inuwa, stated, “We shall wait to see if the Federal Government implements the wage award to its workers because we don’t want to say the action we will take until after we’re sure of what the Federal Government does.”
He said the union had written to the state government demanding the immediate implementation of the wage award to workers in the state, but the government had yet to respond.
“You know we have written to the state government requesting for the payment of the wage award to our members but the government is yet to respond. We are still waiting for the government to invite us or respond to our letter. But we will continue to wait until we see what the Federal Government does. So, we shall take the next line of action if the state government fails to implement the wage award to our members.’’
Speaking in the same vein, the Gombe State NLC General Secretary, Ibrahim Fika, said the chapter had presented four demands, adding that failure of the state government to implement them would result in an industrial action.
The demands, according to him, include biometric attendance, clearing of outstanding 2019 minimum wage for local government staff,palliatives and the N35,000 award across the board.
He said, “Failure to meet these demands, labour will declare industrial action in Gombe State because we have many issues in Gombe but these are our priority areas.”
