Nigeria’s central labour movement Thursday issued a two-week ultimatum to both the Federal and State Governments to begin the implementation of the 18,000 naira (US$ 120) minimum wage or face industrial action.
Presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwahed Omar, and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele, warned in the nation’s capital, Abuja, that they would resist deregulation as a pre-condition for the upward movement in the minimum wage of workers.
Esele and Omar said: “Any attempt to increase the prices of petrol in guise of deregulation will be resisted. And organized Labour is willing, ready and capable of leading Nigerians on mass resistance against such unprovoked, unpatriotic move.
“Given the reluctance or failure of the Federal and State Governments to implement the Minimum wage, which has consequently caused implementation inertia on the private sector, Organized labour, under the auspices of Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, hereby issues a two-week ultimatum for full implementation of the minimum wage across the country.”
They also have a few words of advise for any State government that may be thinking of coercing its state chapter of the NLC or TUC to pay lower figure, saying that such a move will “be vehemently resisted”
