By Omotilewa Quadri
Organised labour in the country yesterday called off the nationwide strike scheduled to commence today.
The industrial action was meant to press home workers’ demand for an upward review of the national minimum wage.
At the end of the meeting of the tripartite committee set up by the federal government, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, said 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.
The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, 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 today.
He thanked all their tripartite partners for its understanding while particularly, appreciating the role of the private sector.
Chairman of the committee, Mrs. Ama Pepple, 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. We will reveal the figure at the presentation,” she said.
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