Politics
EVEN as the organised workers union namely the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have declared an indefinite strike that kick-started on Monday, June 3, 2024, Government has been advised to pay greater attention, become much more focused and intentional in its negotiations with the organised Labour so the challenges that come with the new wage demands are sufficiently and satisfactorily resolved.
HURIWA believes that the federal government is not intentional, deliberate or much more focused towards reaching an acceptable consensus on the new wage demands because according to the Rights group the central government has been very lackadaisical about the negotiations beginning with the failure of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to even elevate the minister of state for Labour to the vacant position of the substantive minister of Labour and productivity. President Tinubu should promote the minister of state for Labour to the substantive cabinet level appointment as the main minister.
HURIWA also condemned the incessant threats issued by the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi who has posed a significant drawback to the negotiations by his manifested bellicose tendencies of often coming up with jaundiced threat of legal consequences that he claims await the labour leaders only for embarking on legitimate collective bargaining mechanisms which included strike action as the last resort.
HURIWA stated thus: “The Threat from the Federal Attorney General makes it look like the government has a predetermined solution or answer to the groundswell of wage demands by workers. This attitudes of wielding the so-called sledge hammer of court sanctions against labour union leaders for embarking on constitutionally guaranteed right to embark on strike, is totally wrong and therefore must be halted if the administration is hoping to reach a consensus with the leaderships of the trade Unions and Labour unions so there would be minimal disruptions to economic activities in Nigeria. By the way, is the Attorney-General and minister of justice the chief judge of the National Industrial Court that he now makes pronouncements on which strike action is legal or illegal?
HURIWA posited that it is a well known information that the organized labour decided to embark on industrial action after the negotiations between them and the government over the minimum wage of workers came to an impasse.
“The indisputable fact is that for sometimes now, the NLC and the TUC have been in negotiation with the federal government over a new minimum wage since the government policies such as the removal of fuel subsidy announced last year by President Bola Tinubu led to an increase in the cost of goods and services.”
“The organized labour claimed that a new minimum wage is long overdue, and due to the incessant soaring of the price of goods and services, the government should upwardly review the wages of workers.
Accordingly, NLC and TUC initially proposed a new wage of N615,000 to the federal government. However, after many negotiations and deliberations, the union settled for the sum of N495,000″.
HURIWA has through a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko called out the central government for approaching the entire episodes of the negotiations over an acceptable new wage bills in such a way that betrays a lack of adequate focus and respect for the feelings of the generality of Nigerians. Government’s approach to the negotiations has been very lacklustre and has been lacking in organisational focus and the administration has failed to show that it is very intentional and deliberate in working with all the parties to reach a middle of the road solution to the challenges that have been occasioned by the costs of living crises that was inflicted on a massive scale by the President Tinubu’s administration when it unilaterally hiked the pump price of petrol leading to the immediate and spontaneous skyrocketing of the costs of living for millions of Nigerian. HURIWA is also appealing to the organised Labour to fundamentally reshape their wage bills demands to such a level that could be achieved such as making their demands within the range of N180,000 to N200,000 as the basic monthly wage for an average worker with a family of 5 persons to feed and care for.
“We are of the position that first and foremost, the president of Nigeria should see employment related matters as very strategic to the advancement of the national economy. President Tinubu sees Labour related issues as distractions which is logically inappropriate. You can’t possibly grow the nation’s economy if the economic policies of government being churned out intermittently, are antagonistic to the public good and public interest.”
“How can a government introduce bad economic measures that have made the costs of basic foodstuffs and other critical commodities clearly out of the reach of the average worker in the civil service and yet has shown a lack of adequate commitment to address the labour related consequences of these clearly thoughtless policies?”
HURIWA maintained that the high costs of fuel and constant devaluation of the Naira are twin economic evils that have unleashed a regime of socio-economic hemorrhagic tendencies. “If the workers can’t survive on their slave wages that they currently earn due to high costs of living and poor purchasing power of the Naira due to devaluation of the Naira, how much more miserable do we think the millions of jobless citizens would survive existentially? These are the basic questions and this government is going about the wage bills negotiations so poorly as if to say the well-being and welfare of the people of Nigeria do not matter”, HURIWA asserted conclusively.
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-June 31, 2024 @ 12:44 GMT|
Tags: HURIWA NLC TUC
