After series of meetings between Labour and the federal government failed to achieve the necessary truce, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress TUC) jointly resolved to declare an indefinite nationwide industrial action with effect from 3rd October, 2023.
Before now, the two bodies were operating along parallel lines and separately meeting the federal government on the issues arising from the fuel subsidy removal announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the inception of his administration.
While the NLC made good its threat by embarking on a two-day warning strike, the TUC chose not to back the decision.
The warning strike, the congress said, was to demonstrate its readiness for the indefinite strike later in the month.
United front
But in a joint communiqué issued after the Separate National Executive Council (NEC) meetings, the two bodies claimed there was no division and jointly directed affiliates of both centres to commence mobilisation for the action.
Signed by Presidents of NLC and TUC, Comrade Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo respectively, the communiqué also urged workers to sustain street protest until government met their demands.
The communiqué reads: “There is no disagreement between Labour and Government on the existence of massive suffering, impoverishment and hunger in the country as a result of the hike in the price of Petrol which demands an urgent need for remedial action,
“The Government has totally abdicated this responsibility and has shown gross unwillingness to act abandoning Nigerian people and workers to excruciating poverty and affliction.
“The federal government has continued to grandstand and forestall all avenues to peaceful dialogue with organized labour on ways to save Nigerians from the huge hunger and suffering experienced across the nation as a result of the unconscionable hike in the price of Petrol (PMS) by the Government
“Consequently, the NLC and TUC NEC-in-Session resolved to, in the spirit of the Independence Day celebration and to demonstrate our resolve for a truly independent Nigeria to take our destinies in our own hands and rescue our nation
“To embark on an indefinite and total shutdown of the nation beginning on zero hours Tuesday, the 3rd day of October, 2023.
“To direct all workers in Nigeria to withdraw their services from their respective workplaces commencing from the 3rd of October.
“To direct all affiliates and state councils to immediately start mobilizing accordingly for action to organize street protests and rallies until Government responds positively to our demands
“To enjoin all patriotic Nigerians to join hands across the nation to assist this government put the people back at the centre of its policies and programmes.”
Abbas begs workers
However, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas pleaded with Labour to halt its planned nationwide strike.
Speaker Abbas made the call Tuesday in his speech at the resumption of plenary after the eight-week holiday.
Abbas said the planned strike by the NLC would further aggravate the economic challenges facing the country, and pleaded with the leadership of the NLC to be patient with the government.
He assured that the NLC that the House would mediate between them and the federal government to fast-track an agreement.
“It is in our considered opinion that embarking on a nationwide strike at this point will only aggravate an already bad situation. I therefore urge the leadership of Labour Unions to give us the benefit of the doubt and suspend any planned strike action while we engage the executive,” he said.
The speaker also declared that the House will support the executive in passing “survival wage” as minimum wage.
“As promised earlier, this House remains committed to getting a survival wage to all Nigerian workers. The 10th House had assured Nigerians that we would be interfacing between the organised labour and the government to quickly work out a realistic new national minimum wage,” he said.
…Delisted 17,000 workers
Meanwhile, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has directed over 17,000 of its member delisted from the federal government payroll under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to remain calm.
It would be recalled that apprehension was building up from the civil servants, when news filtered in that over 17,000 government employees were said to have been delisted from the IPPIS for failing to comply with verification exercises spanning over five years.
But reacting to the development Tuesday, ASCSN National President Tommy Etim Okon said there were some discrepancies in the IPPIS verification process.
For instance, he said names of Personal Assistants (PAs), Special Advisers (SAs) and in some cases Ministers who had served in successive governments were found in the portal.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Comrade Okon criticised his members, wondering why most genuine civil servants feigned ignorance of the verification exercise while it lasted.
He, however, noted that the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation gave a one- week grace period for affected employees who were erroneously omitted from the IPPIS portal to forward their documents for update, provided they had genuine cases.
Okon said: “We called your attention to what we heard or information at our disposal just few days ago, we received an information that over 17,000 workers in the core civil service did not carry out the online verification which was done by the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
“Quickly we swung into action to interface with the government through the HoSF and by that singular act, there was need for us to talk to our members and that informed the reasons, because we have seen a lot of apprehensions from our members, receiving several phone calls, then we also looked at the timing because of the social economic challenges.
“We went deep into the document where we also realised that even in some government agencies, we realised that names of PAs, SAs and some Ministers were included in the IPPIS portal, whereas those people were political office holders in their own rights in various regimes.”
On the lifeline available to the affected workers, he said a committee had already been constituted in the office of the HOSF to handle such cases, while calling on those with genuine complaints, who had initially done the online verification on the portal of the IPPIS to submit a scanned copy of their document to the email already provided.
Comrade Okon however said the one-week deadline given by the HoSF to fully comply with the verification exercise was rather too limited, stressing that government should in its magnanimity extend it because of the rigours involved.
“You know it is always said that when you want to kill a dog, you give it a bad name, that maybe justifies the inclusion of SAs, PAs to the bad name in quote. They came up with claims that civil servants don’t come to work, they just sit down at home and collect salaries, we said capital No to that.
“These information is very important to our members and we are calling all our members to remain calm because the HoSF is doing her best to see that those workers who were genuinely captured and verified with evidence of clearance will be brought back to the payroll.
“The HoSF has given a window of one week to ensure that if you were verified genuinely on the online portal of IPPIS, that you should submit the scanned copy to the email that has been provided, you can also submit the document to the committee which has already been set up in the office of the HoSF, let me also say this to our members, this exercise was not carried out last week, it has been over 5years but one is taken aback why some of us became recalcitrant to things that affect our career and even our family.
“We know that a civil servant is responsible to more than 10 people in the family and when you take into cognizance the extended African culture, you realise that a civil servant does not only earn his salary but does so with every other member of the family. So it is on this note that we call on the government ti exercise restraint over this exercise and give a good window, so that we can select those who visited the portal and did the online verification and certified, whose names are appearing in this document, so that names should be excluded,” said the union leader.
