Labour Threatens Strike As FG Dithers Over MoU

The Organised Labour is unhappy with the federal government’s slow pace of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they signed to avert its planned nationwide strike.

The state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have now vowed that failure to implement the agreement before the October 30 deadline might leave them with no choice but to down tools.

They also claimed they had commenced mobilisation of their members across the country.

When asked on Tuesday whether Labour was satisfied with the implementation of the MoU, the Head of Information and Public Affairs of the NLC, Benson Upah, said, “No, we are not. The government could do better and faster. We issued a statement a few days ago in which we expressed our displeasure with the Minister of Labour and Employment.”

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The national leadership of the NLC and TUC had on October 1 reached an agreement with the Federal Government to pay N35,000 to all federal workers beginning from September pending when a new national minimum wage would be signed into law.

The resolution provided that the wage award would be paid to the federal workers for six months while states were encouraged to extend the same benefit to their workers.

The unions had threatened to declare a nationwide strike on October 3 but the move was suspended on the condition that the wage award, cash transfer, and some other resolutions must be implemented within 30 days effective from the day the MoU was signed.

The PUNCH reports that out of the 15 demands contained in the MoU, only a handful had been implemented by the government.