Government Agrees to N35,000 Wage Increase and Other Concessions in Crucial Meeting with Labour Leaders.
Recall that, in an effort to prevent the threatened strike
action by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC),
the federal government convened a meeting with labor leaders in Abuja on
Sunday. Following this meeting, a statement by the Minister of Information,
Mohammed Idris, revealed that the government had made several concessions.
These included a provisional wage increase of N35,000 for all treasury-paid
federal government workers over a six-month period, a commitment to expedite
the provision of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to alleviate public
transportation challenges resulting from the removal of the PMS subsidy, the
elimination of VAT on diesel for the next six months, and the commencement of
payments of N75,000 to 15 million households at a rate of N25,000 per month for
a three-month period from October to December 2023.
Furthermore, the government emphasized that the
implementation of these concessions would be contingent on workers returning to
work. In response to the government's stance, NLC President Joe Ajaero stated
that they are carefully considering the government's promises to workers before
making a final decision regarding whether to proceed with the proposed strike.
He expressed, "I don't have much to say beyond what the Chief of Staff has
mentioned. We have engaged in extensive discussions and examined all the
government's commitments. We are now focused on translating these commitments
into tangible actions that can be put into practice. We will take these
promises to our organizational bodies; it's important to note that decisions of
this magnitude require careful consideration and cannot be made hastily."
The labor delegation present at the meeting included NLC
President Joe Ajaero, TUC Deputy President Dr. Tommy Etim Okon, NLC General
Secretary Emma Ugboaja, TUC General Secretary Nuhu Toro, among others.

Comments
Post a Comment