The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have declared a statewide strike commencing on Monday, June 3rd, 2024, due to the tripartite committee’s inability to agree on a new minimum wage and an increase in electricity tariffs.
Festus Osifo, President of the TUC, declared the strike during a joint news conference with NLC leadership in Abuja on Friday.
According to labor leaders, the decision followed the expiration of a previous request to the Federal Government to complete all discussions for a new minimum wage by the end of May.
“In light of this persistent inaction, we, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), hereby issue a notice of commencement of an indefinite nationwide strike to the Federal Government,” Osifo stated.
We reiterate that because the National Minimum Wage negotiation exercise has not been completed and the agreed-upon wage has not been passed into law; the increase in electricity tariffs has not been reversed; and the categorization of consumers into Bands has not been halted as demanded, Nigerian workers are compelled by these failures to embark on an indefinite nationwide industrial action beginning on Monday, June 3rd, 2024, to press our demands.”
The organized labour had already pulled out of the negotiations and rejected two Federal Government proposals, the most recent being N60,000. They are pushing on N497,000 as the minimum wage.
Since the termination of gasoline subsidies and the flotation of the naira, the cost of living in Nigeria has skyrocketed, escalating calls for a new minimum wage.
Following the development, labor leaders proposed a new minimum wage, alternative forms of transportation, and other steps to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal.
The government later formed a committee comprised of labor leaders, government officials, and organized private sector representatives to negotiate a new minimum wage.
Despite several meetings, the committee failed to reach a consensus, prompting the recent strike action by the labour leaders. The Federal Government is yet to comment on the TUC and NLC’s latest move.