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There are strong indications that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) could cancel its planned nationwide protests slated for Wednesday, August 2.
Sources close to NLC state that they are considering canceling the exercise based on FG’s appeal to do so.
This followed another round of meeting of the Presidential Steering Committee on Palliatives at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, where labour representatives faulted President Bola Tinubu’s palliatives rollout as “grossly insufficient.”
“About the protests, yes, they (FG) also appealed that we should shelve the protests. Our response was that we are going this evening to have a conversation around that. And you will hear from us at the end of that meeting,” President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Festus Osifo, told journalists on Tuesday.
However, the labour representative described the Federal Government’s intervention announced by President Bola Tinubu on Monday as “grossly inadequate.”
Tinubu had in a national broadcast unveiled N500bn palliative for manufacturers, small businesses and farmers.
He also released plans to increase salaries and acquire 3,000 CNG-powered mass transit buses for all 36 states and the FCT.
Notwithstanding, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the TUC insisted that the roll out were not adequate, maintaining that the rally would hold in line with its schedule.
Osifo who addressed State House Correspondents on behalf of the organised labour said, “We think, for example, 3000 bosses are not sufficient. By the time you divide 3000 by 37, you can see how many they can come up to. So, it’s not sufficient, grossly inadequate.
“Then we also think as well that some of the measures put on the table are not far reaching.
“So we are also going to demand for what we think will do so if we think 30,000 buses could do it. 40,000 buses could do it in the immediate. Yes, we’ll push it forward.”
Osifo noted that although the labour unions are pushing for the adoption of a minimum wage to match the economic realities of post-petrol subsidy, that goal appears far away due to the bureaucracies involved and the current absence of a subcommittee.
In the interim, he said it is pushing for wage awards which are implementable immediately.
“On our path, what we are demanding was wage award. So wage award, like for example, you’ve heard some states that have said, ‘we’re paying 40,000 minimum,’ so it’s more or less they are giving it. It is not the law. They are doing above the minimum wage.
“So for us we felt that the federal government could do, on their own, so much above the minimum wage, without much conversation, because the Committee on the minimum wage has not been constituted. We want to be very clear on that. That committee has not been constituted.”
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