UPDATED: Why We Are Not Going On Strike Again – NLC

* Tripartite panel submits report to Buhari today
* New minimum wage to be unveiled on Tuesday

Organised labour has called off the nationwide industrial action
scheduled to commence on Tuesday (today) to press home workers’
demand for a new national minimum wage.

The National Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba
Wabba, announced the suspension at the end of the 10pm meeting of
the tripartite committee set up to come up with the new minimum
wage on Monday.

Wabba said the decision to suspend the action was reached after
agreements were reached and documents signed.

“Having reached this position and agreements signed, the
proposed strike action is hereby suspended,” the labour leader
said.

Wabba, however, refused to disclose the figure of the new
minimum wage arrived at by the committee.

He said the figure would only be made public after the
committee’s report would have been presented to President Muhammadu
Buhari by 4.15pm on Tuesday.

He, however, said only one figure would be presented to the
President.

The Chairman of the committee, Amma Pepple, expressed delight
that their assignment had been concluded.

“I am happy to report to you that we have concluded our
assignment and we will submit our report to the President by 4.15pm
on Tuesday.

“We will reveal the figure at the presentation,” she said.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss
Mustapha, thanked members of the committee for doing a wonderful
job.

He described the process as a long journey.

“The committee has worked assiduously to reach the conclusion,”
he said.

Earlier, the tripartite committee set up by the Federal
Government to come up with a new national minimum wage for the
country concluded its assignment on Monday.

The committee chaired by a former Head of the Civil Service of
the Federation, Amma Pepple, had recommended two figures, N24,000
and N30,000, for minimum wage.

Pepple disclosed this to journalists at the end of the
committee’s marathon meeting held to beat the indefinite strike
action declared by labour unions and scheduled to start on
Tuesday.

In the process of negotiation, state governors said they could
only pay N22,500; the Federal Government proposed N24,000 while the
labour and organised private sector settled for N30,000.

The labour and the Federal Government did not shift ground at
the Monday meeting.

Pepple said the committee would present the two figures to the
executive arm of government which will take a final decision after
due consultation.

She said the final decision would thereafter be sent to the
National Assembly.

“We have concluded but we have a little challenge about Chapter
5 of our report. That is the section where we report the
negotiation and the figures we used for negotiation and the figure
that we concluded on.

“The committee came up with two figures. The Federal Government
suggested N24,000 and labour as well as the organised private
sector gave a figure of N30,000.

“There is no stalemate. We have finished and we have signed the
report but what we are insisting on is that the strike should be
called off. We are waiting for the President to give us a date to
submit the report. The report will go through a process. It will go
through the Federal Government as well as the National
Assembly.”

On the industrial action scheduled to commence on Tuesday,
Pepple said, “We have pleaded with them (labour leaders) to call
off the strike and they have said they are going to consult. So we
are likely to come back. We shall be reconvening at 10pm.”

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, also told
reporters that the government was making progress.

He insisted that the N24,000 figure of the Federal Government
was based on ability to pay and sustainability, stressing that the
state governors who proposed N22,500 would have no choice but to
adopt the Federal Government’s figure.

The minister said, “We are making progress. The governors’
figure should be the figure of the Federal Government. We are just
trying to carry them along; otherwise, the Federal Government
speaks for the government.

“The figures are standing but you know that there are other
processes. It will get to the National Economic Council, Council of
State and then an Executive Bill will be sent to the National
Assembly.

“The Federal Government figure of N24,000 is noted and it is
also weighty because it is based on ability to pay and
sustainability.

He added, “The labour is satisfied. We have done the needful and
we have crossed the Rubicon. The only aspect we need to do now is
to fix an appointment to present the report to the President.

“We are reconvening tonight because that appointment has to be
made. Mr President has gone home; he is not just sitting idle. We
have sent message to the place and we are making necessary
contacts. If we get the appointment now, we will reconvene and
decide what to do.

“The state governors have no choice now because they have
attached themselves to us as the supreme sovereign, they are the
minor sovereign.”

Representatives of the labour union that attended the meeting
have yet to speak with journalists as of the time of filing this
report.

While some of them left and insisted that they would not talk
until after the meeting slated for 10pm, some others remained at
the venue of the meeting.

The Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, who represented
governors on the committee also did not talk to journalists before
leaving the venue.

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed; and the Minister of
Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, also refused to talk to
journalists.

The two ministers left the venue earlier than others.

While the reconvened 10pm meeting of the tripartite committee
was still ongoing, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation,
Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, on Monday night ordered all workers to ensure
they resume at their duty posts on Tuesday.

She said the order became necessary because the National
Industrial Court had restrained the Nigeria Labour Congress and the
Trade Union Congress from embarking on strike from Tuesday as
scheduled.

The order was contained in a circular titled ‘Notice of court
injunction on proposed strike action: Directive for compliance’ and
dated November 5, 2018.

The circular was signed on behalf of the HOCSF by the Permanent
Secretary, Service Welfare Office, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack.

She asked all Permanent Secretaries to ensure strict compliance
with her directive.

The circular read, “The attention of the Head of the Civil
Service of the Federation has been drawn to the order of interim
injunction by the Abuja Division of the National Industrial Court
of Nigeria dated November 2, 2018 restraining the Nigeria Labour
Congress, the Trade Union Congress and their members from embarking
on or taking part in the strike or industrial action to commence on
Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

“In view of the above, I am directed to inform you that all
staff are expected to continue to report at their duty posts to
carry out their duties pending the hearing and determination of the
motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.

“All Permanent Secretaries and Heads of extra-Ministerial
Departments and Agencies are to bring the content of this circular
to the attention of their staff and ensure strict compliance.”

Earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday appealed to
the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress to consider the rot,
he claimed, his administration inherited and call off its planned
strike.

Buhari made the appeal at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, when he
received members of the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors
of Nigeria led by Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora.

The appeal came barely 24 hours to the commencement of the
indefinite industrial action called by labour unions to press for a
new national minimum wage.

Buhari said the workers needed to show more understanding.

“President Buhari also appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress
to consider what this government inherited and the more it is doing
with fewer resources in putting the economy right,” a statement
issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi
Adesina, read.

Buhari assured Nigerians that his administration would sustain
investments to upgrade and develop the country’s transport and
power infrastructure.

He said, ‘’There is no part of the country I haven’t been to,
having attempted to be President four times. I know the condition
of our roads. The rails were literally killed; there was no power
despite the admittance of some previous leadership that they spent
$16bn on the sector.

“Today, we are getting our priorities right and we believe that
of the three fundamental issues we campaigned on, security, the
economy and fighting corruption, we have remained very relevant and
Nigerians believe we have achieved something.”

Buhari’s appeal came just as the National Industrial Court of
Nigeria in Abuja, also on Monday, rejected a request for a fresh
order to stop the organised labour from embarking on its planned
strike scheduled to commence on Tuesday (today).

The court presided over by Justice Sanusi Kado also refused to
grant a prayer for an order to compel the government to immediately
commence the process of adopting N30,000 as the new national
minimum wage.

Justice Kado said it would be unnecessary to make another order
stopping labour from embarking on the planned strike having earlier
made a similar one in a case brought to the court by the Federal
Government on Friday.

The Federal Government had filed its suit following the threat
by the organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress,
the Trade Union Congress, and the United Labour Congress, to embark
on strike if its demand to increase the national minimum wage from
N18,000 to N30,000 was not met.

Contrary to the labour’s demand, the Federal Government said it
could only pay N24,000 as minimum wage and the state governors
under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, had stuck to
N22,500.

The lingering dispute between government and the labour prompted
the Federal Government to seek and obtain the court order to stop
the strike. Labour however denied receiving any notice or order
from any court.

The fresh ex parte application seeking to stop labour from
embarking on the strike and to also compel government to commence
the process of paying the N30,000 minimum wage was filed by a civil
society group, Kingdom Human Rights Foundation International.

The group’s lawyer, Mr Okere Nnamdi, at the Monday’s
proceedings, informed the court that he filed his client’s ex parte
motion alongside other processes on November 1.

He urged the court to grant the prayers, including the one
seeking an order of substituted service of the court processes on
the governors joined as the 10th to the 45th defendants in the
suit.

But the judge immediately cut in, asking the lawyer if it would
still be necessary to proceed to hear the application, in view of
the Friday’s order made by the same court.

Okere conceded that he was aware of the order made by the judge
on Friday.

But Nnamdi argued that his ex parte motion was different from
that of the Federal Government, save for the prayer seeking an
order stopping the planned strike, which is contained in both
applications.

The judge insisted that the court having, on Friday, granted an
order to stop the strike, there was no longer any form of urgency
in the matter, and as such, it was not necessary to compel the
government to start the process of adopting the N30,000 as the new
national minimum wage.

Following the judge’s explanation, the plaintiff’s lawyer
applied to withdraw two of the prayers having to do with the
request for an order stopping the planned strike and the other
seeking to compel the government to pay N30,000.