The federal government has expressed confidence that the labour unions will shift its proposed industrial action scheduled for Wednesday.
Chief of Staff to the President Mr Femi Gbajabiamila disclosed this to newsmen after a closed door meeting with the leadership of the unions on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the unions have accepted the proposal for palliatives announced on Monday by President Bola Tinubu in a nationwide broadcast on the palliatives to cushion the fuel subsidy removal.
Speaking, the Trade Union Congress National president, Mr Festus Osifo said the meeting with the federal government was fruitful based on the broadcast of Mr President on Monday.
He explained that the unions were informed by government representatives that the various palliatives proposed by the president were just the baseline and that more are coming.
According to him, they believed the President claimed to have saved N1 trillion in the past two months, but they didn’t think the proposed measures were comprehensive enough.
Mr Festus maintained as part of the principle of negotiation, when anything was put on the table, one will accept but still push for more.
On the issue of the minimum wage proposed by the President during the broadcast, Festus Osifo noted that the meeting also made observation on that, adding that it was not part of what the union was asking for.
He said the issue of minimum wage was a legal thing that requires constitutional amendment and that there was no time for such now.
“However, we suggested that the federal government should implement a wage award similar to some state governments, which have announced paying amounts like 40,000 or 50,000, at least for the time being”
‘’We have also heard some states saying that they’re going to pay PMS allowance of XYZ amount. So those are the wage awards that we were thinking and we are pushing government to do,’’ the TUC National President said.
Bello Wakili
