Labour may suspend strike as FG, NLC, TUC reach compromise

BY BRIGHT JACOB

There were indications on Sunday night that labour may call off the proposed strike, following talks between the Federal Government and organised labour.

The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila who led the Federal Government team, announced after the meeting that the government and members of the organised labour reached agreements which the labour officials would take back to their respective organs for ratification.

Amongst the issues discussed was the decision by the Federal Government to spread the minimum wage increase across all the cadres of the federal civil servants as against the earlier announcement by President Bola Tinubu to limit the N25, 000 to the low grade workers.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, General Secretary of the NLC, Emma Ugboaja and General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Nuhu Toro, who were part of the meeting said they will take the decisions back to their various organs for ratification.

Gbajabiamila said that the provisional wage increase that President Tinubu announced for all low-grade workers for six months will cut across all workers.⁣

“There was a lot of chatter on Twitter about the issue of low-income workers only falling into the category of the provisional wage increase. And we did communicate with the President and he quickly did say and agreed that all categories of workers will be given the wage bill. There is nothing like low income, medium income or high income,” Gbajabiamila said. ⁣

He expressed optimism that the labour unions would backtrack on the nationwide strike planned for Tuesday. ⁣

The Chief of Staff explained, “Hopefully, we expect that Labour will call a meeting of their various branches and executive tomorrow to present the agreements that have been reached, and we pray and we believe and we hope that the strike will be called off on Tuesday.”⁣

The two labour centres, the NLC and TUC had threatened to embark on a nationwide indefinite strike on October 3, 2023 to protest the fuel subsidy removal policy of the Federal Government.