Labour suspends strike

The organised labour has called off the nationwide strike scheduled to commence on Tuesday.

The industrial action was meant to press home workers’ demand for an upward review of minimum wage.

At the end of the meeting of the tripartite committee set up by the federal government, Ayuba Wabba, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), told reporters that the decision to suspend the industrial action was taken after agreements were reached and documents signed.

“Having reached this position and agreements signed, the proposed strike action is hereby suspended,” he said.

Efforts to resolve the disagreement between government and labour initially suffered a set back on Monday as both parties failed to reach consensus on the minimum wage.

After meeting for over seven hours, the two teams arrived at different figures. While labour insisted on N30,000, the government delegation proposed N24,000.

Chris Ngige, minister of labour, had said the two figures would be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval.

The meeting continued at 10pm and after two hours of deliberation, both sides agreed on an amount.

Wabba, who did not disclose the figure of the new minimum wage arrived at by the committee, said only the amount would be presented to Buhari.

He said the amount would only be made public after the committee’s report would have been presented to the president by 4.15pm on Tuesday.

He thanked all members of the tripartite committee  for their understanding while particularly, appreciating the role of the private sector.

Ama Pepple, chairman of the committee,  expressed delight that the assignment had been concluded.

“I am happy to report to you that we have concluded our assignment and we will submit our report to the President by 4.15pm on Tuesday,” she said.

“We will reveal the figure at the presentation.”