The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Sunday said the Congress in the year 2024 would do everything possible to ensure a living wage for Nigerian workers.
NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero said this in his New Year massage issued in Abuja.
He urged employers of labour both public and private to prepare to restore what they have taken away from workers in the New Year.
He said the movement would collaborate with other social partners to guarantee the rights of workers in workplace.
Ajaero further said the agreements signed with government on the 2nd October, 2023, would be vigorously pursued for implementation.
“To this end, NLC will be committed in 2024 towards ensuring that a living wage becomes possible for all Nigerian workers by working with others to secure a National Minimum Wage that approximates to the dictates of the various parameters that make incomes humane and grants access to basic necessities of life for the average worker.
“We will recommit to building workplaces that guarantees the rights and privileges of workers while building the basis for continuous wealth creation for our nation.
“All actions that will therefore ensure that decent work gaps are reduced to their barest minimum will be encouraged.
“We will therefore strengthen our collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Labour, NECA and the TUC using the tripartite process to regulate the Industrial Relations space and ensure that the reviewed labour administration laws are forwarded to the National Assembly for passage into Law.
“From every indication, 2024 will be an interesting year. Interesting because it will witness a period where all that has been taken away from workers will be restored.
“Any Private sector employer or Agency of Government that is therefore owing any Nigerian worker anywhere should be ready to pay up in 2024.
“We will work in collaboration with our civil society partners to generate frameworks that will build stronger and more robust civic space which ensures that our voices are heard at all times and used to check and assist the government to take the right actions that will make governance more effective and beneficial for the majority of the citizenry.
“NLC will seek to work with partners and patriots everywhere to pursue the creation of more effective structures to protect the institutions of democracy in Nigeria.
“We shall to this end join hands with other willing forces to begin work at strengthening our leadership recruitment processes especially the electoral framework in Nigeria.
“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that credibility is restored to our elections, which is the foundation for enthroning a more responsive and responsible government that remains accountable thus totally anchored on the people.
“Much more, we will engage Government to ensure that the agreement it reached with us in our last negotiations especially the October 2nd Agreement are implemented,” he said.
APC berates PDP on ‘delayed’ salary
In a related development, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has said workers’ welfare would continue to top the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
The party said in a statement signed Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in Abuja, wherein it blasted the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for accusing the APC-led federal government of delayed December salary of workers in the federal civil service.
The PDP in a statement at the weekend had criticised the APC-led administration over ‘delayed’ payment of December salaries to federal workers.
The ruling party described the accusation as flaunting of the opposition’s “folly, incompetence, envy and confusion in a statement that is disgracefully bereft of reason or cogency.”
He said: “For the record, the December salaries of federal workers have been paid. But that is a fact that poses an insurmountable challenge for decrepit PDP to ascertain or verify. The Party would rather flaunt its folly, incompetence, envy and confusion in a statement that is disgracefully bereft of reason or cogency.
“Indubitably, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has demonstrated far greater sensitivity and commitment to workers’ welfare in his few months in office than all of PDP’s 16 years of reckless and profligate rule. In the best interest of workers, the administration has continued to promote qualitative dialogue and engagement with organized labour in prevention and resolution of disputes.
“The welfare of Nigerian workers is at the core of the conception and implementation of the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda. The PDP’s reckless statement cannot possibly be referring to the same APC-led administration that approved the delisting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a panacea to recurring ASUU strikes; instituted a program of access to student loan; granted N5 billion as palliative for 36 states of the federation; approved additional N35,000 wage bonus for workers as palliative for three months; the upward review of minimum wage; payment of backlog for N-Power participants, and cash transfer of N25, 000 to vulnerable Nigerians for six months; grants for farmers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and free train ride as well as 50 per cent discount in transportation fare for commuters during the yuletide. PDP’s accusations is nothing short of barefaced dishonesty and partisan pettiness.”
According to Morka, “It is hypocritical for the PDP “that perverted the fuel subsidy regime, fed fat from the corruption of that system and displayed a gross lack of political will to end that economic hemorrhage to be idly pontificating about savings made from ending that system against their irresponsible objections. The money saved belongs to Nigerians and it is being prudently utilised on their behalf.
“The PDP is crying wolf and peddling misinformation even when the organized labour, the defenders of workers’ rights, has maintained mature understanding and disposition. The statement cuts a pitiful profile of a party with a sordid history and a murky future.
“Nigerians are in the clear that President Tinubu’s reforms are designed to reposition and restore the nation to greatness and sustainable prosperity.”
