The previous committee meeting on May 31 ended abruptly when the Organised Labour negotiating team walked out, protesting the government and organised private sector’s refusal to raise the offer beyond N60,000.

According to Vanguard, this move suggests that the government is concerned about workers’ compliance and participation in the ongoing indefinite nationwide strike.

The proposed meeting is set to take place at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Recall that organized labour shut down the nation’s economy on Monday due to the Federal Government’s inability to adopt its proposed national minimum wage.

The organised labour who made this appeal on Monday said any plan to increase electricity or petrol will be a wrong step.

The organization, however, vowed to do everything within its capacity to resist any increment.

President, National Union of Chemical, Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Product Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), Babatunde Olatunji, made the appeal at the 29th Annual Industrial Relations seminar of the union in Ibadan, NAN reports.

He said that currently, power supply in Nigeria stood at 4,000 megawatts for about 200 million population compared to South Africa with 58,000 megawatts and has 50 million population.

Industrialisation cannot take place in the absence of power. Inadequate infrastructure like bad road network is also a challenge.

”Government should ensure adequate power, security of lives and properties as well as regulate multiple taxation and charges to allow manufacturing companies survive, thus promote Gross Domestic Products in the country,” he said.

The labour leader further said that the effect of socio-economic crises and coronavirus pandemic on industrial relations was evident in high number of job losses arising from factory closure.

He said that the management of some organisation in a bid to maximise profit have made staff to work for more than eight hours without overtime payment while many permanent employment are converted to casual.

Olatunji urged the management of affected organisations to treat all workers with dignity and also respect the International Labour Organisation’s law on workers right to join a union irrespective of their status.

According to a statement by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, on Thursday, the Union said it is  demanding for an immediate reversal of the price, stating that the new price in this COVID-19 pandemic was only going to worsen the poverty level across the country and kill businesses.

The statement also accused the government of not being insensitivity towards its citizen for increasing the pump price of fuel at a time Nigerians and businesses were struggling to cope with the negative consequences of COVID-19 pandemic.

InsideOjodu had earlier reported on Wednesday, July 1 2020 that the Federal Government through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency announced a new retail price for oil marketers to sell petrol within the price range of N140.80 and N143.80 for the month of July amid COVID19 in Nigeria.

The statement  also argued that  “PPPRA contradicted itself when it said that the latest price increase described as an “advisory” was meant to regulate a product that government claims had been de-regulated.

“That this new hike in the pump price of petrol was announced without the approval of the board of the PPPRA and the oversight ministry speaks volume of the arbitrariness and public contempt in the operations of PPPRA. We find this deeply disturbing.

“It is also very embarrassing that the PPPRA boss, while trying to defend the indefensible, appeared to be out of sorts and ready to clutch at any available straws to sell his ice block merchandise to Eskimos.

“Apart from contradicting himself that PPPRA is still trying to regulate a deregulated product through ‘advisories’, the PPPRA went on to exert more nails on the coffin of his polemics when he argued that PPPRA was just like the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, that would always act to protect the public interest.

“That was how far the niceties went. The rest of the statement by the PPPRA boss was about how PPPRA plans to protect investors and increase their profit.”

Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, had on December 31, 2019, in its New Year Message, directed its state councils to start preparing for industrial protest against defaulting governors.

It said: “We use this medium to implore states that are yet to implement the new national minimum wage, including the states that are yet to begin negotiation with labour on the consequential wage adjustment to speedily do the needful.

In tandem with our position as adopted and communicated after a stakeholders’ meeting on December 11, 2019, organised labour in Nigeria will not guarantee industrial harmony in states that fail to implement the new national minimum wage by December 31, 2019. We direct our state councils to be on the standby to robustly engage state governments that fail to obey our laws.”

According to Vanguard report, only six states have begun implementation of the new wage, while five states have concluded negotiations with organised labour on consequential adjustment and agreed to commence implementation this month (January). Meanwhile, four states are yet to set up committees for the negotiations of the consequential adjustment. However, 21 states are still embroiled in negotiations on the consequential adjustment.

The states that have commenced implementation are Lagos, Kaduna, Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano and Adamawa, while the five states that agreed to commence implementation this month are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Bauchi and Katsina.

Similarly, the 21 states at different stages of negotiations are Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom,    Enugu, Imo, Plateau, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Bornu, Sokoto, and Gombe, while those yet to commence negotiation are Yobe, Nasarawa, Taraba and Niger states.

It will be recalled that while the N30, 000 new national minimum wage was signed into law on April 18, 2019, by President Muhammadu Buhari, Organised Labour and the Federal Government agreed on the consequential adjustment on October 18, 2019, after protracted negotiations.

Source: Vanguard

They said the request was to prevent “another avoidable round of agitation.”

They also commended stakeholders who participated in the just-concluded negotiation on consequential adjustment arising from the monthly new national minimum wage.

The acting chairman of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (Trade Union Side), Simon Anchaver; and Secretary, Alade Lawal, made the demand in a statement emailed to The PUNCH in Abuja.

Labour expressed hope that all sides in the just-concluded negotiation had learnt a few lessons that would enable them avoid similar mistakes in future, including attempts by some “fifth columnists” in government to derail collective bargaining process.

According to them, representatives of government and organised labour “exerted so much energy, dedication and intellect during the prolonged negotiation on consequential adjustment before reaching
Agreement acceptable to both parties.”

The statement reads, “It is necessary to commend millions of workers at the Federal and 36 States Public Services for their patience, understanding, and for the confidence they reposed in the leadership of the TUS of the JNPSNC to carry out the negotiation to its logical conclusion.

“We are also glad that government has taken note of the need for a general salary review in the Public Service. We are looking forward to this review and we hope that the Federal Government will keep to its promise which was made during the negotiation of consequent adjustment.

“We also wish to advise that since the 2019 national minimum wage was signed into law by Mr. President on April 18 2019, the implementation should start from that date so as not to trigger off another avoidable round of agitation by Public Service employees and their trade unions.

“We also wish to put on record the marvelous role played by the leadership of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and that of the Nigeria Labour Congress in ensuring a successful negotiation.

“The TUS equally hailed the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, for properly managing the trade dispute when the government side tried to derail the negotiation leading to marathon meetings in his office before agreement could be reached.

“We are particularly glad that the Honourable Labour Minister has urged all employers covered by the 2019 national minimum wage Act to commence payment failing which the trade unions should declare trade disputes against such employers at the Ministry or drag them to the National Industrial Court.”

The TUS also commended the acting Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, “for bringing her motherly disposition to bear on the negotiation process and for assuring the nation that necessary arrears would be paid.”

Source: Punch

During a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, the FG and labour again failed to reach an agreement over payment of the new minimum wage, cancelling the meeting that was scheduled for today.

However, both parties will resume negotiations in Abuja next week.

According to a source, who spoke with the newsmen, he noted that labour was insistent on its demand while government negotiators refused to improve on their proposals.

While the FG is offering a 10 per cent salary increase for workers on grade level 07 to 14 and 5.5 per cent for those on grade level 15 to 17, labour is insistent on 29 per cent for workers on grade level 07 to 14 and 24 per cent for those on grade level 15 to 17.

The source said, “We maintained our earlier position and demand at the meeting. Government negotiators were not ready to move from their position also. We have told to package our position and their own proposals and send to their principal (President Muhammadu Buhari) to look at the difference.

“We want him to look at it hoping that the FG will come up with better proposals. Whatever they come up with will be the subject of our meeting next week. Tomorrow’s meeting has been called off.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, Richard Egbule, said labour’s demands would significantly increase the total wage bill, hence the government would not accept labour’s proposed salary adjustments.

Secretary of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Alade Lawal, during an interview with newsmen, responded to the claim stating that the government was trying to force labour to accept its proposal, adding that such would only make workers poorer.

Oshiomhole made the call in Abuja at a reception in honour of the Director-General, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Mr. Guy Ryder, while expressing concern over the non-chalant attitude of leaders towards improving the lives of Nigerian workers.

He, however, urged the organised labour to adopt aggressive engagements to change the status quo.

“We have to do things differently about minimum wage,” he said, noting that whereas prices of goods and services had gone up astronomically in the country, workers wages have remained static.

“So if every other costs are changing, and labour cost is constant…, somebody is being squeezed.

“Rising crises, stagnant wages, a very miserable lifestyle, and you have to fight for that.

“And we now see in Nigeria the difference between signing an agreement and the challenge of translating those laws, and even the contradiction of signing laws first before getting consultants to tell us how to implement these laws.

“Just to tell you that from inside, I am much more convinced that unions should not only exist but should have the capacity and ruthlessly deploy that capacity to ensure that the resources of states are dissipated in favour of working people and working families,” the former NLC president said.

Oshiomhole commended ILO for its focus on Youth Employment and Social Justice, adding that focus should also be on ageing population and underemployment of young persons.

He said Nigeria ought to do something about its population growth which was at 3 percent annually, as against 2 percent national economic growth.

“With population at 3 percent, poverty must be endemic, it is not rocket science, so we so need to have conversations on various aspects of society, particularly at what we do differently to get the youth busy.”

He urged young people to collaborate to fight poverty by pushing those in government to create the environment for them to think and change the narratives.

Earlier, the ILO DG, Mr. Guy Ryder, said Nigeria trade union movements have made great impact in defence of basic fundamental rights in line with the provisions of the organisation.

According to him, the organised labour has also played extraordinary role in building the nation’s democracy, saying the consistency was in line with the fundamental values of the ILO.

Buckingham Palace, however, has failed to give a location of the birth, telling CNN’s Max Foster that the “Duchess is in labor but is not saying where she is”.

Behind Prince Charles, Prince William and his three children and Prince Harry, the royal baby will be seventh in line to the British throne. The newest addition to the British royal family would make Queen Elizabeth II a great-grandmother for the seventh time.

Harry and Meghan got married at Windsor Castle last May and announced that they were expecting their child in October when they touched down in Australia for their first overseas tour as a married couple.

And with the news that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has gone into labor, royal baby watchers have gone into overdrive but one thing that still remains unclear is where she will give birth.

While it has only just been confirmed by media that the Duchess of Sussex is currently in labour, die-hard royal fans have been waiting patiently for the birth.

Toting baby-themed balloons and draped in Union flags, some fans have made their way to Windsor Castle, near to where Meghan and Harry now reside at Frogmore Cottage.