- Nigeria’s current minimum wage is a paltry sum of N18,000, while the Labour are proposing that this sum be increased to N56,000. This is the crux of the strike action.
- The FG and labour have been meeting on this for the last 2 years.
- The Labour Unions did not send any notice to the Minister of Labour of their intended strike as expected by law. A notice was rather sent to the SGF’s office. The Minister thinks this was an ambush.
- The protocol of such procedures is to first serve the Minister a 14 days notice before the commencement of the strike. There seems to be breach of this protocol by labour who played a fast one by rather serving the SGF. Knowing government bureaucracy, the letter is less likely to get to the Minister before 14 days.
- The Labour Unions met on the 26th of September with the Minister of Labour and agreed to suspend their strike – but said they would need the consent of their Working Committees to ratify this.
- They commenced their strike action on the 27th of September; this suggests that their working committees did not consent to the suspension of the strike.
- The Labour leadership met with President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari on the night of Thursday the 27th. We do not know what transpired in details, but the Labour have said they would take the position of the government back to their various organs.
- A Tripartite Committee was set up to review the issue of the minimum wage. It comprises of the Government – Federal and States, the private organised sector and the Labour Unions. Any decision to be reached must be a consensus of all.
- The Federal Government has said it has no qualms paying the minimum wage – the problem is the states. Most states have not been able to even meet up with payments of the current minimum wage of N18,000.
- The States have not yet agreed to the minimum wage as they say they cannot pay it; thus stalling any consensus of the tripartite committee.
- The Organised Private Sector are heard by sources to have agreed informally to pay the sum of N25,000 as its minimum wage.
- Since 2015 no major labour action has happened under President Buhari. Kudos we think!
- The Presidential elections are drawing near, we believe that labour is trying to take advantage of the season and squeeze the government into action.
- A strike action would have dire consequences on Nigeria’s economy, and can lead to serious damage to our economic growth.
- Nigeria can lose about N1.1 Trillion Naira daily due to a maximum strike by the Labour.
