The Nigeria Labour Comgress ( NLC) has disclosed that if the FG and NASS did not act on its ₦250,000 demand by Tuesday, 11 June 2024, NLC and TUC organs would meet to take a position on the resumption of the nationwide strike relaxed last week. The Labour relaxed the strike to give room for negotiation after a meeting convened by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume.

The Organised Labour stated that the one-week grace period given to the Federal Government last Tuesday, June 4, 2024, would expire by the midnight of Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Labour added that should the Federal Government and National Assembly fail to act on the demands of workers by tomorrow (Tuesday), the organs of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) would meet to determine on the resumption of the nationwide industrial action relaxed last week.

Chris Onyeka, an Assistant General Secretary of the NLC, made this statement on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief show on Monday, 10 June 2024.

Onyeka said, “The Federal Government and the National Assembly have the call now. It is not our call. Our demand is there for them (the government) to look at and send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly, and for the National Assembly to look at what we have demanded, the various fact of the law, and then come up with a National Minimum Act that meets our demands.

“If that does not meet our demand, we have given the Federal Government a one-week notice to look at the issues and that one week expires tomorrow (Tuesday). If after tomorrow, we have not seen any tangible response from the government, the organs of the Organised Labour will meet to decide on what next,” he remarked.

When interrogated further what the decision of Labour would be should the government insists on ₦62,000, he said, “It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and that organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”

The Labour official said that organised labour won’t accept any ₦62,000 or ₦100,000 “starvation wage” as the minimum wage for Nigerian workers.He insisted on ₦250,000, labour’s latest demand at the last meeting of the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage on Friday, 7 June 2024, as the living wage for an average Nigerian worker.

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