New Minimum Wage: NLC To Proceed On Nationwide Protest Tuesday

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it will proceed on it’s planned nationwide protest on Tuesday to drive home its demand for the new national minimum wage.

General Secretary of the labour union, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said this in a statement on Monday.

Ozo-Eson implored members of the public to disregard reports that the NLC strike would begin on Tuesday, saying that there would be no strike for now, but mass protests.

The statement read, “It has come to our attention that some sections of the news media have largely misrepresented our action plan in reaction to the delay in transmitting the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on a new national minimum wage to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“It should be recalled that the National Executive Council of the NLC met on December 17 last year and directed that we hold nationwide mobilisation of workers and our allies if, by December 31, 2018, the bill on the national minimum wage has yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an Act of Parliament.

“We immediately announced then that on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, there will be a nationwide mass mobilisation and protests simultaneously across all states in Nigeria. This does not translate to a strike.”

Concise News recalls that the National Executive Council of the NLC had threatened to embark on a nationwide protest on Jan. 8 to make government transmit the tripartite committee report on the N30,000 minimum wage to the National Assembly.

The labour ultimatum followed President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that a “high powered technical committee” would be set up to study the report before transmitting to the legislature, a move which has not been forthcoming.

Buhari had explained that the technical committee would devise ways to ensure that the new wage implementation did not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.