THE leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared Tuesday, January 8,  as the day for mass protest and mobilization nationwide against the Federal Government over the delay in implementing the N30,000 minimum wage for workers.

Talks between government representatives and labour leaders on how to avert an impending nationwide strike over the minimum wage crisis collapsed last Friday. Another meeting was fixed for Monday, January 7, 2018.

NLC General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Esson in a statement issued on Monday stated that that the National Executive Council (NEC) of NLC met on December 17, 2018, and directed there should be a nationwide mobilisation of workers and their allies if, by December 31, 2018, the bill on the National Minimum Wage has yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an Act of Parliament.

“Already, all our State Councils, affiliate unions and allies in other pro-people mass organisations now popularly referred to as Civil Society Organisations have been fully informed and mobilised to ensure the success of tomorrow’s mass protests in all the states and the Federal Capital Territory,” he said.

Responding to media reports that the Tuesday protest amounts to strike action, Ozo-Esson said the protest and mobilization were not called for a strike.

He said when a date was decided for the commencement of strike action, the public would be duly informed.

“We immediately announced then that on Tuesday, 8th January 2019, there will be a nationwide mass mobilisation and protests simultaneously across all states in Nigeria. This does not translate to a strike,”  he said.

“It is on record that each time we had cause to embark on a national strike, we say so publicly without any equivocation. We still don’t understand where the story about a strike commencing tomorrow came from.”