The Federal Government and organised labour are scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday, and the Nigeria Labour Congress has threatened to go on strike.
The NLC is requesting that the government comply with its demands in order to lessen the impact of the removal of fuel subsidies.
It added that it had only suspended its planned strike and that it would not hesitate to call for workers to participate in industrial action.
The Nigeria Labour Congress claimed that Nigerians were experiencing intolerable hardship because of the high cost of fuel.
It stated that the government must act quickly to provide palliative care and that it expects the minimum wage to be raised from N30,000 to N150,000.
Recall that on June 5, 2023, the Federal Government and labour unions met and resolved to meet again on June 19 to determine how the resolutions reached would be implemented.
This was revealed at the conclusion of the meeting between labour and government representatives at the Presidential Villa in Abuja by Femi Gbajabiamila, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives and current Chief of Staff to the President.
Gbajabiamila stated that the June 5 meeting agreed on a seven-point resolution to mitigate the impact of the removal of subsidies on Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol, on Nigerians.
He said, “The Federal Government, the TUC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress should establish a joint committee to review the proposal for any wage increase or award and establish a framework and timeline for implementation.
“The Federal Government, the TUC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress should review the World Bank cash transfer scheme and propose the inclusion of low-income earners in the programme.
“The Federal Government, the TUC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress should revive the CNG conversion programme earlier agreed with labour centres in 2021 and work out detailed implementation and timing,” he said.
But, speaking on the expectations of labour from the meeting scheduled for Monday, the Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Adewale Adeyanju, said a lot of things had been presented by labour unions, stressing that the government should not act funny.
“There are a lot of things that labour has been putting before the government. The refineries need to be revamped. We cannot continue to import refined petroleum products and spend on subsidies all the time.
“Labour has its set of demands, and by the time we meet with the government tomorrow, we will list them out again,” he stated.
Adeyanju, when asked what action the Nigeria Labour Congress would take if the government did not give in to labour demands, said, “You know, we only suspended our strike because we needed to meet on this.”
“So the government should know that things are becoming difficult, and they (the government) should not decide to do anything funny. The strike was only suspended. It was an ultimatum that was given out, and the strike was suspended.
“So let’s hear what the government has for us, and then we will know what to tell our members. It is about the lives of the people. Let’s meet them tomorrow, and then labour will come out with its position.”
Adeyanju, on the other hand, expressed optimism that the meeting would be fruitful and insisted that the Nigeria Labour Congress would not want the government to act strangely.
“We hope that the meeting is going to be fruitful. The expectations are very high. The nation is watching, and people are looking at how the Nigeria Labour Congress is going to handle the situation.
“And the government too will not like to behave funny because they know the country is battling with the increase in fuel pump prices and so many other things,” he stated.
On the proposal by oil marketers for the deployment of compressed natural gas at filling stations, the Nigeria Labour Congress official stated that a technical committee had been set up by the Federal Government to look into the matter.
“The government has set up a technical committee on some of these issues. So I don’t want us to preempt the outcomes that will come out of that meeting tomorrow between labour and the government,” he said.
On the need to deploy CNG, the National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Okonkwo, stated that oil marketers were looking forward to the outcomes of the meeting between the Federal Government and labour before making their moves.
“The meeting on Monday is very crucial, because marketers are ready to deploy CNG, but the outcome of that meeting will tell us whether the government is ready to give the support needed to make this initiative fruitful.
“We are very confident that with the deployment of CNG as a substitute to PMS, the harsh effect caused by the petrol price hike will be addressed significantly,” Okonkwo said.