The federal government has said it is confident labour unions will not embark on strike.
This position was stated by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, while speaking with State House correspondents Friday afternoon.
Labour unions on Thursday had given the federal government till December 31 to send the tripartite committee report on N30,000 minimum wage to the National Assembly.
The three labour groups, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the United Labour Congress (ULC) took the decision after a joint meeting in Lagos.
They gave the ultimatum following President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that a “high powered technical committee” would be set up to devise ways to ensure that implementation of a new wage does not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.
Mr Buhari spoke at the presentation of 2019 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday.
The labour leaders said issues on payment of minimum wage was a law that was universal, citing other African countries like, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa which had increased their minimum wage this year.
“If you increase minimum wage, you are increasing the purchasing power of the economy, which will help to reduce inflation rather than increase it,’’ Mr Wabba said.
He urged workers to be vigilant and prepare to campaign and vote against candidates and politicians who are not willing to implement the new minimum wage.
Joe Ajaero, President of ULC, also called on the government to send the report to lawmakers so that the implementation of the new minimum wage report would begin in earnest.
Mr Ajaero said all affiliate members of the organised labour had been informed to stay alert ahead of the December 31 notice if the government failed to submit the report.
But Mr Mohammed said NLC is a patriotic union and ”it will not do anything that will embarrass the government”.
“I am very confident that they will not do anything that will embarrass the government or do anything that is going to worsen the situation,” he said.
According to him, continuous engagement is the key, ”we will continue to engage them and I think they do also fully understand what the challenges are”.
He said both parties are determined to ensure that common ground is arrived at during deliberations.
The labour unions had planned to go on a nationwide strike on November 6, following the state and federal government’s current delay in accepting the N30,000 minimum wage agreement.
Premium Times