Ahead of the meeting between the Federal Government and the organised labour scheduled to hold today (Monday), the Nigeria Labour Congress has said the government must meet its demands to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.
The union threatened that it would not
hesitate to call out workers for industrial action, adding that it only
suspended its planned strike.
It stated that the high cost of fuel was
inflicting unbearable hardship on Nigerians, adding that the government must
act fast with respect to providing palliatives, as the NLC said it was
expecting an increase in the minimum wage from N30,000 to N150,000.
The Federal Government and labour unions met
on June 5, 2023, with a resolution to reconvene on June 19 to agree on the
implementation framework of the resolutions reached.
The former Speaker of the House of
Representatives and current Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila,
who led the government side, had disclosed this at the end of the meeting
between labour and government representatives at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, the June 5 meeting agreed
on a seven-point resolution to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal on
Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, on Nigerians.
“The Federal Government, the TUC, and the NLC
to 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 NLC
to review the World Bank Financed Cash transfer scheme and propose the
inclusion of low-income earners in the programme.
“The Federal Government, the TUC and the NLC
to revive the CNG conversion programme earlier agreed with Labour centres in
2021 and work out detailed implementation and timing,” Gbajabiamila had stated.
But when contacted on Sunday to speak on the
expectations of labour from the meeting scheduled to hold today (Monday), the
Vice President, NLC, 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 be spending 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.
Asked to state what action the NLC would take
should the government fail to give in to the demands of labour, considering the
plight currently faced by Nigerians with respect to the removal of subsidy,
Adeyanju replied, “You know we only suspended our strike as a result of the
need 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 it (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, however, expressed optimism that
the meeting would be fruitful and insisted that the NLC would not want the
government to behave funny.
“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 price and so many things,” he stated.
On the proposal by oil marketers for the
deployment of Compressed Natural Gas at filling stations, the NLC 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 from that meeting tomorrow between labour and the
government,” he stated.
Commenting 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.
“That meeting tomorrow (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 petrol
price hike would be addressed significantly,” Okonkwo stated on Sunday.
The NLC also stated on Sunday that it was
expecting an increment in minimum wage from N30,000 to between N150,000 and
N200,000.
It further urged President Bola Tinubu to
ensure that borders were re-opened to ensure smooth importation and exportation
of food and farm products.
The National Treasurer, NLC, Hakeem Ambali,
made the disclosure in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja.
إرسال تعليق