Labour unions are again at loggerheads with the Federal Government over the latter’s refusal to implement the new national minimum wage.
Herald Nigeria learnt that the Trade Union Side of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council has commenced mobilization of its members nationwide to prepare them for industrial action.
Notifying the public of the impending strike, the TUS acting chairman, Simon Anchaver and Secretary, Alade Lawal, in a strike notice in Abuja, said they “may have to embark on industrial action if the current state of affairs as regards the issue of consequential adjustment arising from the new national minimum wage of N30,000.00 per month remains the same.”
The statement reads: “The government has a predetermined position and only called labour in to rubberstamp its hidden agenda. With this turn of event, it is quite clear now that some fifth columnists in this administration are hell-bent on pushing President Muhammadu Buhari to enter into a collision course with millions of Nigerian workers in the Public Service. This is very sad.
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“It is indeed perplexing that political office holders whose monthly take-home pay runs into millions of Naira are the ones working behind the scene to ensure that public service employees especially core civil servants continue to receive starvation wages.
“This is why the eight trade unions in the public service have resolved that enough is enough and that if the Federal Government fails to call its officials to order and direct them to negotiate openly the issue of consequential adjustment arising from the new national minimum wage, millions of workers at the Federal and 36 States public services will have no other alternative than to take some necessary trade union actions to seek redress. The time for President Buhari to act is now.”
The workers lamented that the committee set up early this month by the government to work out the consequential adjustments arising from the new national minimum wage of N30,000.00 started to meet, the government has been playing politics with the whole arrangement.
“As things are right now, the government side is only prepared to pay peanuts to workers as an adjustment under the pretext that it will soon be undertaking general salary review in the public service”, the workers stated.