Labour warns FG over delayed MOU, threatens strike

The Memorandum of Understanding that organized labor struck with the federal government to avert a scheduled nationwide walkout is being implemented slowly, which has angered the labor organization.

In addition to stating that they had started mobilizing their members nationwide, the state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress warned that if the agreement is not implemented by the deadline of October 30th, they may be forced to downsize.

Benson Upah, the NLC’s Head of Information and Public Affairs, responded, “No, we are not,” when asked on Tuesday if Labour was happy with how the Memorandum had been implemented. Government action may be quicker and more effective. We voiced our discontent with the Minister of Labour and Employment in a statement that we released a few days ago.

The federal government and the national leadership of the NLC and TUC came to a deal on October 1st, under which all federal employees would get N35,00 starting in September, subject to the passage of new legislation establishing a national minimum wage.

The resolution stipulated that the federal workers would get their salary award for a period of six months, and the states were urged to offer similar benefits to their employees.

After threatening to go on a national strike on October 3, the unions decided to postpone their plans as long as the pay award, cash transfer, and several other resolutions were put into action within 30 days of the Memorandum of Understanding being signed.

It was stated that just a small number of the 15 demands included in the Memorandum of Understanding had been carried out by the administration.

In addition to reportedly starting work on the construction of state-of-the-art CNG stations across the country, the Federal Government had ordered the payment of the N35,000 wage award and made provisions for 55,000 compressed natural gas conversion kits to jump-start the autogas conversion program.

Nonetheless, if the federal and state governments did not carry out the provisions of the agreements reached with organized labor, the Ogun State TUC Chairman, Akeem Lasisi, warned that the union could be compelled to announce an industrial action beyond the October 30 deadline.

He clarified that an assessment of the government’s efforts to uphold its part of the agreement and the results of consultations with other union organs will determine whether or not to declare a walkout.

The TUC chief stated in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday that “the Federal Government is responsible for putting most of the agreements into effect.” The payment of the salary award is the only one that matters to the state and municipal governments.

“The government of Ogun State has declared the continuation of the N10,000 cash reward. Negotiations between organized labor and the government did not result in the announcement. We value the government’s initiative in this case. To guarantee the N35,000 wage award is implemented, the government and the leadership will meet.

“Declaring a trade dispute has a procedure: We will convene the relevant organ meeting to assess our progress and explore the options of filing a dispute after the October 30 deadline.”

In the event that the government did not carry out the labor demands, Lasisi’s NLC counterpart, Hameed Ademola, only stated that the union would abide by any instruction from its national leadership.

He declared, “We will follow any instruction given to the state council leadership. This is purely a national issue.”

The National Labor Congress (NLC) chapter in Kano State declared that it would not know what to do until the Federal Government implemented the pay award.

State Chairman Kabiru Inuwa declared, “We don’t want to say the action we will take until after we’re sure of what the Federal Government does. Therefore, we shall wait to see if the Federal Government implements the wage award to its workers.”

He claimed the state administration had not yet replied to a letter the union had sent that the salary award be implemented immediately for state employees.

As you are aware, we have written to the state government asking that the salary award for our members be paid, but as of right now, no response has been received. We have yet to get an invitation from the government or a response to our letter. We will, however, be waiting to see what the federal government decides to do. As a result, if the state government does not carry out the salary award to our members, we will take further action.

In a similar spirit, the general secretary of the Gombe State NLC, Ibrahim Fika, stated that the chapter had made four requests and warned that industrial action would ensue if the state government did not comply.

According to him, the requests include the N35,000 award for all employees of local government, biometric attendance, and the payment of the outstanding 2019 minimum salary for caregivers.

He declared, “Labor will declare industrial action in Gombe State if these demands are not met. Gombe has many issues, but these are our priority areas.”

Regarding the postponement of the demands’ execution, Benue State’s leadership of the NLC and TUC promised to abide by any orders issued by their respective unions’ national secretariat.

Terungwa Igbe, the chairperson of the NLC, and Gideon Akaa, the chairperson of the TUC, stated in separate phone conversations that they would follow any instruction from their unions.

Igbe claimed that despite his letter requesting the implementation of the N35,000 pay award, the state administration had not yet replied.

“We submitted the state administration a joint letter regarding the N35,000 pay award, but we have not heard back from them. We are forced to comply with the union’s demands for a strike whenever they arise, according to Igbe.

“Neither the N35,000 wage award nor palliatives have been responded to as far as I know,” the TUC head stated. Meanwhile, the state administration vowed to use a portion of the N2 billion settlement to cover the cost of the students’ external exams, according to reports from the media. That will, in our opinion, be advantageous for the workers’ children.

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In response to a question regarding the union’s next course of action should the government fail to uphold the agreement, Akaa stated, “We will carry out whatever our mother union directs.”

On the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding established with the federal government, the unions in Sokoto State disclosed that they will shortly pick back up with the state administration.

“We hope to meet this week to discuss some of the concerns brought up in our letter. The governor is currently aware of all the difficulties. Regarding the strike’s renewal, TUC secretary Hamisu Hussain revealed, “Even if all of our demands are not satisfied at the state level, we will unquestionably wait for the directive from the national headquarters on when to commence strike.”

According to checks, the Kwara State government still owed the state’s workers N35,000 of their compensation.

Tunde Joseph, the state TUC chairman, reaffirmed on Tuesday that the government has not replied to the letter of request that was issued to it.

“On October 4, we sent a letter to Governor Mallam AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq regarding worker rewards, and we followed up with a reminder last week, but neither letter has received a response from the administration. Joseph noted that the union’s national leadership would decide whether to go on strike if the government refused to carry out the agreement. “We are still waiting for the government to give a reply to our request on the awards,” Joseph said.

Saheed Olayinka, the state chairman of the NLC, added that the state administration still hadn’t made contact with organized labor.

He said, “Although they haven’t invited us to a meeting yet, whatever action we would take would depend on their decision at the national level.”

Dauda Shuaibu, the NLC Chairman for Bauchi State, lamented the Prolonged execution of the Memorandum of Understanding, stating that the state’s labor force will be forced to participate in any walkout called by the leadership.

“None of the agreements have been met by the state administration. You are aware that certain requests are particular in the sense that the state councils ought to begin debating the matter of pay (raise) and others are generic in nature.

The state government received a letter from us, but they never gave us a call. He bemoaned, “They did nothing, they didn’t call us even after we wrote a reminder.

“You know that the strike is a nationwide strike, so if after the expiration of the ultimatum they give a directive on the strike, we will join,” he responded when asked if they would still adhere to the October 30 deadline. While we wait for the national secretariat’s instructions, we will adhere to the deadline of October 30. We will follow their instructions.

Upah, a spokeswoman for the NLC, has stated that since the new minimum wage is not expected to be implemented until 2024, the formation of a minimum wage committee is not currently a problem.

Statutorily, the minimum wage is not required until the next year. Therefore, creating a new committee cannot be a problem just yet, he said.

The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, declared that the minimum wage might be raised to N200,000 or N100,000 if the Premium Motor Spirit subsidy was eliminated.
The head of the NLC stated that a number of criteria would be taken into account when determining a new minimum wage.

When we talk about it, a few factors come into play, such inflation and the cost of living. It would involve everything else,” he continued. “We wouldn’t go ask for N65,000 in cash.” We would aim for a reasonable sum, as N65,000 equates to roughly $70, which is below the minimum wage, he added.