As a matter of fact the Nigerian government is acting as if they are our worst enemies for no good government will be comfortable in the face of noticeable poverty confronting her workers. Let no one be deceived, our government has the capacity to pay the new minimum wage as presented by our labour centres
EMMANUEL THOMAS I Saturday, June 30, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – Labour unions in Nigeria have set aside Monday, July 2 for a warning strike(sit at home), following refusal of the Federal Government to speed up issues relating to increment in salary and wages of workers.
“Great Nigerian workers, we will not wait for any other further directives. Let us all sit at home on Monday 2nd July 2018. We all have the responsibility to ensure compliance and success”, labour said.The unions, comprising Nigerian Labour Congress ( NLC ), Trade Union Congress ( TUC ), United Labour Congress ( ULC ), Civil society groups and the Nigerian workers said employers treat workers as conquered people that can be put in any situation.
“We no longer count in the scheme of things neither are we considered as citizens nor human that matters”, labour said and that r government don’t seem to care.
“They further our agony with discriminative policies like the deliberate devaluation of our national currency, increase in the price of petroleum products, mopping up of currency etc.Our government has deliberately kept our wage low as advised by their international collaborators. As a matter of fact the Nigerian government is acting as if they are our worst enemies for no good government will be comfortable in the face of noticeable poverty confronting her workers.
“Government’s attitude towards her workers has shown that they don’t believe in productivity neither do they believe in creativity nor progress.Most unfortunately, we have a government that believes workers must be poor, God forbid, if not why must prisoners allowance be more than the national minimum wage ? why won’t government agree with labour to pay the new minimum wage which is less than one percent of our President’s salary ? ; truly our government is lacking in conscience. All these must stop. It is our future that is at stake, it is our tomorrow that is endangered. However we look at it, we all have a tomorrow that we are all responsible to and must give account to”, they said, adding that the time to act is now.
“No responsible government will set up a salary review committee since November 2017 last year and is still sitting up till June this year without any specific terminal date, only for one of its Ministers to unilaterally announce to the public that government may not be able to pay as promised in September 2018.
“We the Nigerian workers will not accept this relegation to the background. We shall not continue to live in the face of uncertainty. We the Nigerian workers have been abused enough.We shall no longer tolerate this injustice. We are not beggars . Enough of the game over the minimum wage. We will demand for our legitimate dues.We can no longer cope with the slavish poor wage.We are tired of engaging in other menial jobs outside office hours inorder to subsidise for our employers”, they said in a statement signed by Emelieze Andrew, National Coordinator ( AWC ).
On lack of capacity, they said, “Let no one be deceived, our government has the capacity to pay the new minimum wage as presented by our labour centres. Engaging in such rhetorics will amount to begging the question . We therefore, support all the demands of our labour centres on the new national minimum wage.We agree with our leaders that implementation should commence from August 2018 and we take exceptions to any attempt to paint our leaders badly as seen in the recent unilateral declaration by the Minister of Labour that minimum wage is no longer feasible in September 2018”, labour unions said.
