NLC set to resume strike in Kaduna

[files] President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba

‘Why labour shunned MoU with Nasarawa govt’

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is poised to resume its suspended industrial action in Kaduna State. Consequently, it directed its state council and affiliate unions to mobilise for the latest action.

According to a statement to journalists in Kaduna, the President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, made this known during a press conference after an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the congress, yesterday, in Abuja.

Wabba reportedly accused the Governor Nasir el-Rufai of failing to respect the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) brokered between the NLC and the state government by the Federal Government.

He said the congress, after exhausting all avenues, including writing letters to President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the decided to resume the strike.

SIMILARLY, leaders of organised labour in Nasarawa State has explained that they refused to sign the MoU with the state government and suspend the ongoing strike because the government doctored the agreement.

Nasarawa NLC Chairman, Yusuf Iya, and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Mohammed Doma, stated this to newsmen after the union’s congress yesterday in Lafia.

Iya explained that a committee set up after the strike was declared had collectively agreed on how to end the strike. He said the MoU collectively written stated that the last tranche of August 2016 salary arrears should be paid in June.

“We also agreed that promotions would be implemented from August, while the committee on minimum wage should resume discussion on the consequential adjustments for workers in level seven and above.

“But, to our surprise, the government doctored the agreement and included a clause that, whenever the federal allocation is less than N4 billion, the government would revert to old payment – meaning that any month the allocation is less than N4 billion, the government would suspend the implementation of the promotion and pay workers in their old grade levels,” the NLC chairman added.

Iya said signing the agreement with the clause would mean mortgaging the future of workers and that the leadership of the union would not succumb to that. On his part, Doma expressed displeasure with the government for including what was not originally contained in the agreement.