The leadership of the organised labour says it will meet with its organs today, Monday, to discuss the N35,000 provisional wage award by the federal government for all federal workers for six months.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, stated this in an interview with journalists a four-hour meeting with the government delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Sunday night.
Ajaero said the organised labour could not unilaterally shelve the indefinite strike it scheduled for October 3 without discussions with its organs.
“I don’t have much to say than what the Chief of Staff has said. We’ve been meeting and we’ve looked at almost all the issues, all the promissory notes from the government and we’ll look at how to translate them to reality and to be workable,” Ajaero said.
“Then, we’re going to take those promises to our organs. Of course, you know these people here cannot just wake up and review and call off action.
“So, like he (Gbajabiamila) said, we are hopeful that our organs will have a look at them and give us a fresh mandate on what next to do. So, it’s a simple one,” he added.
The acting president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Tommy Etim Okon, said the labour would meet its organs today to review the outcomes of the meeting with the government delegation.
He added that the team from the organised labour would return for another meeting today.
He said: “Let me, on behalf of the TUC, also point out to the fact that we have had series of conversations surrounding the issue raised and we do hope that by tomorrow (today), we are going to get across to our organs so that we can also look at it and cross-fertilize ideas and see the way forward. I am sure we are coming back again tomorrow (today) for that.”
In a statement after the meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had approved N35,000 provisional wage award for all treasury-paid federal government workers for six months, following further consultations with the Federal Government delegation that met with the leadership of the NLC and the TUC yesterday.
President Tinubu had, earlier yesterday in his 63rd Independence Day Anniversary broadcast, announced the N25,000 increment for low-grade federal workers.
The minister said during the meeting, the labour unions made case for higher wage award.
He said a sub-committee would be constituted to work out the details of implementation of all items for consideration regarding government interventions to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
