Minimum Wage: Organized Labour Set To Resume Suspended Strike

By Ayodele Oni

The Organized Labour may resume the indefinite strike it suspended last week on Tuesday, just as it Insisted that it will not accept any N62,000 or N100,000 “starvation wage” as the minimum wage for workers.

The union maintained its stand on N250,000, being its latest demand at the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage on Friday, as the living wage for an average Nigerian worker.

Chris Onyeka, Assistant General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), made the clarification while fielding questions on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday.

Onyeka pointed out that the one week given to the Federal Government last Tuesday to suspend the strike would expire by the midnight of Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

According to him, should the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on the demands of workers by Tuesday, the organs of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress, (TUC), would meet to decide on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action.

“We have never contemplated N100,000 let alone 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.

“The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various facts of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.

“If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues and that one week expires on Tuesday.

“If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the Organized Labour will meet to decide on what next.

“It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it.”