Ondo workers' leaders explain pact with govt
BOTH the Federal and state governments now have two weeks to begin the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage or face the wrath of the Labour movement in the country.
Handing down the ultimatum in Abuja yesterday, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Peter Esele, warned that they would resist deregulation as a pre-condition for the upward movement in the minimum wage of workers.
Also, contrary to reports that the organised Labour in Ondo State has agreed to temporarily drop the agitation for the N18,000 minimum wage and settled for N14,000 "until the state revenue profile improves", Labour leaders in the state have said that the pact with the government was only "on correcting the relativity disparity among the workers."
Esele and Omar said: "Any attempt to increase the prices of petrol in the guise of deregulation will be resisted, and organised Labour is willing, ready and capable of leading the Nigerian people on mass resistance against such an unprovoked, unpatriotic move. Given the above manifest reluctance or failure of Federal and state governments to implement the minimum wage, which has consequently caused implementation inertia on the private sector, organised Labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress hereby issue a two-week ultimatum for full implementation of the minimum wage across the country."
They also have a few words of advice for any state government that may be thinking of coercing its state chapter of NLC or TUC to pay a lower amount as such an attempt would be vehemently resisted.
They described as "dangerous cacophony" the outburst of some governors against law and order in the country regarding the status of the Minimum Wage Act 2011.
The workers' leaders said: "Labour will never succumb to the blackmail of the masses to accept an increase in fuel prices. Any attempt to increase the prices of petrol in the guise of deregulation will be resisted, and organised Labour is willing, ready and capable of leading the Nigerian people on mass resistance against such unprovoked, unpatriotic move...
"We hereby serve notice that any state government that indulges in this or induces an illicit agreement to pay less than N18, 000, will have to contend with a most robust form of resistance ever in the annals of workers' solidarity in our country."
He urged unions in both public and private sectors to begin an immediate sensitisation and mobilisation of Nigerians for a nationwide strike at the expiration of this ultimatum, saying, "anything short of N18,000 minimum wage is totally unacceptable."
At a briefing in Akure yesterday, the leaders said while the agitation for the national minimum wage continued because "it has legal bond", the strike embarked upon by the workers on the issue was called off because "government acceded to our earlier demands to correct the disparity."
In the pact, which led to the cessation of the industrial dispute, the workers agreed to wait until the improvement of the economy of the state but the action irked the national leadership of the Labour movement, which alleged "criminal conspiracy" between state and Labour officials to shortchange the state workforce.
The Chairman of the workers' Joint Negotiating Council (JNC), Solomon Adelegan, had claimed that the leadership of the union in the state collapsed both the implementation of salary relativity and minimum wage implementation into one agreement.
But the state chapter of the NLC at a parley with the national leadership of the union called to resolve the issue yesterday, maintaining that the state government would still pay the N18,000 minimum wage.
Adelegan, who also told the NLC leadership that his members were not financially induced by the state government to sign the agreement as being rumoured in the state, said the state government was bound to pay the wage whenever the guidelines for its implementation were released by the Federal Government.
The National Chairman of the NJNC, who is also the Vice President of the NLC, Mr. Muhammed Kuru, pledged that the national body would work with the state chapter of the union on the implementation of the minimum wage agreement.
Besides, teachers and civil servants marched through the streets and picketed government buildings across Britain yesterday in protest at planned pension reforms, launching what could be a long period of Labour unrest over austerity measures.
According to Reuters, echoing protests across Europe against spending cuts imposed to reduce debt, the strikes closed many schools, as well as courts and other institutions, but the impact otherwise seemed limited and rallies were largely peaceful and modest in size.
The year-old, center-right government said the majority of civil servants had not gone on strike. But Labour leaders warned of further waves of action by Britain's six million public sector workers against moves to cut pensions for state employees.
The Guardian