THE Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has ordered workers across the city’s six area councils to embark on an indefinite strike from December 1, 2024.
The directive was issued by the FCT NLC chairman, Knabanyi Adalo, in a statement released on Saturday, November 30, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The strike was in response to the refusal of area council chairpersons to implement the N70,000 national minimum wage and settle other outstanding entitlements.
Labour unions had threatened to embark on a strike starting November 30, citing the failure of the FCT Administration to engage with union representatives or address wage concerns since the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike’s, inauguration in August 2023.
Following the threat,the minister approved the minimum wage payment for the FCTA workers.
In a statement issued by Anthony Odeh, the acting head of the FCTA civil service, Wike not only approved the wage increase, he also authorised the payment of three months’ arrears, effective November 2024.
The decision, Odeh noted, was made to ameliorate the plight of workers under the employ of the FCTA.
However, Adalo, who announced the strike for the area councils, said the strike aligned with a communique issued by the NLC National Executive Council (NEC) during its meeting on November 8, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He noted that the communique called for strict adherence to the national directive if the minimum wage was not implemented by November 30.
The NLC FCT council also cited unresolved issues, including unpaid arrears owed to primary school teachers and other entitlements.
According to him, the area council chairpersons had refused to respond to the demand for implementation of the minimum wage in their respective area councils.
“The state administrative council also noted with deep frustration the persistent delay and outright refusal by the area councils’ chairmen to pay some pending entitlements to the workers, including the outstanding arrears of primary school teachers,” Adalo said.
He noted that the failure to implement the new national minimum wage constituted a blatant violation of the law and a complete disregard for the welfare and well-being of workers in the area councils.
“Therefore, all workers in the six area councils in FCT are hereby directed without hesitation to proceed on an indefinite strike beginning from December 1, until further directives,” he said.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu on Monday, July 29 signed the National Minimum Wage Act 2024 Amendment Bill into law, approving a minimum wage for civil servants from N30,000 to N70,000.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M