The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Federal Government to implement all agreements reached with the organised labour in 2023.
The TUC president, Festus Osifo, gave the charge in a 2024 new year message titled “Our hope not renewed yet” which was jointly signed by Nuhu Toro, secretary-general of the union on Wednesday in Abuja.
Osifo said the TUC had in 2023 strived to ensure that social dialogue with the federal government prevailed, but they have failed to implement simple basic agreements with Labour.
He said that labour had insisted that the Oct. 2, 2023 agreements between them and the administration be notarised by the court.
“However, government has serially violated the agreements. For instance, Item two states clearly that: ‘A minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement.
“Today, three months after, no such committee has been set up and this is our experience with this government in at least two previous agreements reached from June.
“TUC has resolved to demand of the Tinubu administration that in 2024, all agreements between labour and government should be implemented.
“This include the payment of the monthly N35,000 Wage Award to Public Servants in the Local Government, State and Federal services.
“These must be implemented until a new National Minimum Wage is implemented.
Osifo said that a new National Minimum Wage must be negotiated, implemented, and if further delayed in the year, arrears must be paid.
He noted that Inflation, which was running at 28.20 per cent, must be drastically reduced to the Sub-Saharan African regional average of 9.4 per cent.
The TUC president urged the governments at state and federal levels to stop the unnecessary, economically-unwise and unpatriotic tradition of taking loans.
“This is especially when these loans only end up being used to purchase thousands of expensive jeeps for legislators, pampered members of the Executive and their spouses,among others,” he said.
He urged government to stop its ill-advised devaluation of the national currency, that is precipitating the collapse of local industries which need foreign exchange to import raw materials.