The Nigerian Government appealed for a 2 week grace period to finalise the demands made by organized labour following the recently announced strike.
This was disclosed by Mr Simon Lalong after a closed-door meeting with the Trade Union Congress(TUC) on Monday in Abuja.
The Minister noted that the meeting aims to avert the proposed nationwide warning strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
FG’s appeal
The Labour Minister noted that the Tinubu administration plans to address those issues within the period of two weeks and come back for further discussion, adding:
- “Some of the issues we discussed are those that are very urgent. There are some that will require a long span of time. This was the basis of our discussion.
- “We agreed that there should be no strike within the two-week period while we are doing our deliberations and working towards realising some of these objectives,” he said.
Mr Festus Osifo, the President of TUC, said some of the issues requiring urgent attention included the implementation of palliatives and wage awards, adding that tax exemptions and allowances to public sector workers plus modalities for N70 billion Small and Medium Enterprises and the RTEAN crisis are other areas that need to be discussed.
- “In the palliatives that were rolled out, we have not seen anything put in place for federal workers.
- “We need a wage award. The palliatives rolled out by the government are not far-reaching. We believe that the government can do much more,”
What you should know
Nairametrics reported earlier that the NLC initiated a two-day warning strike starting on Tuesday, September 5.
The strike is a demonstration of their discontent with the Federal Government’s handling of issues stemming from the removal of fuel subsidy according to reports from Channels Television.
The declaration was made by NLC President Joe Ajaero on Friday during a press conference held at the Labour House in Abuja. He addressed the resolutions put forth during the NLC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held the day before.
Backstory
Earlier in August, the labour centre had organized a nationwide demonstration to protest what it perceived as “anti-poor” measures implemented by the Bola Tinubu administration impacting the lives of Nigerians.
President Bola Tinubu on May 29th ended the controversial fuel subsidy regime which led to an over 200% increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (fuel) across the country.
This move also led to a 97.8% increase in the cost of intra-state transport according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The President had recently set up committees to roll out palliatives and announced a slew of initiatives which include purchasing of CNG vehicles, N75bn single digit interest loans to manufacturers and MSMEs, allocation of N5bn to states and distribution of grains across the 36 states.