There appears to be no end in sight to the minimum wage palaver, as the Organised Labour, on Sunday, boycotted the reconciliation meeting called at the instance of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.
Speaking with Blueprint on Sunday night, the OL insisted that the matter had gone beyond reconciliation, hence its reason for not attending the meeting.
The workers, who also said they were not aware of any court order stopping them from going on strike, said there is nothing stopping them from proceeding with the scheduled strike.
The state governors, had last week, pronounced N22,500 as against the initial N20,000 as the minimum wage they could offer workers at the state level, while labour insists on N30,000.
The governors’ decision came after workers, across the country, staged a peaceful protest to press home their demands.
But the federal government, which had earlier made a N24, 000 proposal, is yet to come up with a new position.
FG opts for court
And following this, the federal government, through the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, approached the National Industrial Court, praying it to stop the planned strike in view of the overall public interest.
And ruling on the matter last Friday, the court ordered the Organised Labour to refrain from embarking on its planned indefinite strike scheduled for tomorrow.
Justice Sanusi Kado gave the order while ruling on an ex parte application moved on behalf of the federal government by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Dayo Apata.
The order of interim injunction, according to the judge, was made in view of the urgency of the matter and the need to protect the overall interest of the public.
While adjourning till November 8 on the matter, Justice Kado warned state governors, under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, joined in the suit as the third defendant, not to do anything that would adversely affect the interest of their workforce pending the hearing and determination of the suit.
He directed that the orders be immediately served on both the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress.
“In view of all that I have been saying above, it is the overall interest of justice and stability of the society to grant the order of interim injunction against the 1st and 2nd defendants (NLC and TUC), their members, privies, agents, proxies, workmen, or servants from embarking on or taking part in the planned strike or industrial action scheduled to commence on November 6, 2018 in whatever form, pending the hearing or determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction which is pending before the court,” the court ruled.
Labour insists
Notwithstanding the court order, the OL is however insisting on pressing on with the strike as scheduled.
General Secretary of the NLC, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson and his TUC counterpart, Mr. Musa Lawal, told Blueprint in separate interviews yesterday that Labour had sent out strike notices, and if nothing is done before November 6, the strike would commence as planned.
According to Ozo-Eson, labour’s demand was that since the tripartite committee on the renegotiation of the minimum wage had completed its work, the report should be signed with the agreed figure , so that it can be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for an executive bill to the National Assembly.
The NLC chief said: “We (NLC) are not aware of any meeting with the SGF over any matter. A government that gets an injunction against us without putting us on notice until we heard from the press has shown enough bad faith.
“Even if we were aware, we would not be interested to attend any meeting. The meeting we are aware of, which we are going to attend, is the tripartite committee meeting tomorrow in Abuja. That’s the one we plan to attend. That is the official position,” he said.
On his part, Lawal said “if we issued a strike notice and government went to court, they should quickly address the issues that led to the strike notice. As I am talking to you, we are not aware of any court injunction; we are only hearing it as rumours”.
On why they shunned the conciliatory meeting, the Comrade Lawal said “what are we conciliating? We have a tripartite committee meeting tomorrow, so why holding another meeting today, what are we reconciling today?”
Mustapha explains
Providing some details into the meeting however, SGF Mustapha said the conciliation was part of the exercises that ought to be undertaken to ensure that there was a complete report to be submitted to the Presidency on the issues related to the National Minimum Wage.
Mustaph said that the Tripartite Committee has been working assiduously, but that there were outstanding issues that needed to be dealt with, and that was the reason for the rescheduled reconciliation meeting.
“Basically, the only outstanding issue that needs to be dealt with is to harmonise the 5th chapter of the report and get the figures in for the purposes of submission to government.
“In the inaugural speech by Mr. President, there were very salient points that caused me to reflect on the work of this committee, and one of it is that there is emphasis that the committee will by consensual agreement, arrive at all their decision and I think that was very important.
“Mr. President went further to emphasise that the concern is not only for the welfare of the workers, but also every other thing should be taken on board as it affects the country’s economy. So, it is a balance of the welfare of the workforce with the effect of the new Minimum Wage and the economy.
“He (President Buhari) also underpinned his speech by emphasising the fact we have to go above basic social protection for Nigerian workers, but also tie to the ability to pay, because I know that a lot of states are even having difficulty meeting the basic minimum wage,” the SGF explained.
CSO cautions labour
But the Network for Accountability and Transparency Crusade, has urged the OL to respect the court order halting its proposed nationwide strike schedule to begin tomorrow.
The group, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Dr. Roland Giwa at the weekend, said it was aware that the government has put forward tangible explanation that the N30,000 minimum wage demanded by the labour union was not feasible due to the precarious state of the nation’s finances.
He said there were already allegations that “the intended strike is politically motivated,” but urged the labour leaders to rise above such personal interest and return to the negotiation table.
According to the statement, going by its antecedents as a pan-Nigerian organisation, the organised labour should be the last group ever to disobey a valid court order in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, and should therefore jettison the intended plan to defy a valid court order.
“The Organised Labour in Nigeria has been known to stand for truth. They have been known to protect the interest of workers in general and not a select few. At the risk of portraying the organised labour in Nigeria as a dictatorial organisation, and one with contempt for the rule of law, the labour leaders at the negotiating table should not allow the smell of filthy enticement make them lose their sense of dignity and that of the millions of workers that they represent.
“The Nigerian workers have been subjected to untold hardship over the years, and to think that the present administration under President Muhammadu Buhari has introduced measures towards alleviating their hardship should be commended and encouraged instead,” the statement added.
‘NNPC on standby’
Meanwhile, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has assured that in event the workers went ahead with the planned strike, there will not be scarcity of petroleum products, the state oil firm, NNPC, has said.
The corporation’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, assured it has a stock of petroleum products to sustain a minimum of 39 days sufficiency and about 25 days availability on land.
The declaration followed rumours of possible fuel scarcity, as both the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), expressed their readiness to withdraw their services in compliance with the directive of the central labour movement.
But the NNPC has assured that there was no need to panic over possible fuel supply crisis.
“Motorists and other consumers of petroleum products are assured of adequate stock to meet their energy needs,” Ughamadu said.
According to him, information on the petroleum products stock level became necessary to dispel insinuations that the threat of strike action by the labour would result in a slip into a round of products shortages across the country.
“Nigerians should remain vigilant and volunteer information to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the industry regulator or to any law enforcement agency around them, on any station that attempts to take advantage of any prevailing situation in the country at the expense of the consumers,” he said.
