FG ready to continue dialogue with Labour

The Federal Government has said it is ready to return to the negotiation table with the organised labour whenever they (labour) deemed it fit.

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige who briefed alongside the minister of information Lai Mohammed, stated this while briefing newsmen after the Federal Executive Council meeting, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We will open our doors to them for negotiations when they come back” Ngige said.

This is as the information minister declared that Nigeria is broke and so could not continue funding imports.

FEC received a report on the understanding reached between the organised labour sector and the FG’s team lead by the labour minister.

Explaining that the government had succeeded in getting the ears of some of the unions and factions under the Nigerian Labour in a bid to apprehend the strike, the minister summoned a meeting of the trade unions and the FG’s side.

The Joe Ajaero’s faction of the NLC that met with the FG’s team on Tuesday and agreed back down from the strike action, had tabled its own condition at the meeting. They had included: The review of the national minimum wage. The inclusion in the board of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) so they can participate in determining the pricing template, they had requested for the involvement in the various components of government’s social investment programmes.

An agreement was reached with this faction as government set up a 15 committee to work on all the issues agreed based on a tripartite arrangement .

Meanwhile the Ayuba Wabba faction had refused further negotiations with government until it reverted to the old pump price of N86.50.

They were said to have stormed out of the negotiations with the FG’s team despite an injunction from the Industrial Labour Court.

Ngige denied allegations that government was festering on the cracks in the labour and supporting factionalism stating that “We are ready to discuss with anybody even civil society groups. We as govt will not encourage factionalism. if for anything we are unifying them by bringing them together to talk about issues that concern their unionsand Nigerians. When have a right to talk to whoever we want

The minister said government had decided to secure the injunction when it discovered that the body language of the NLC faction was not favorable.

According to him, there are processes to be followed in embarking on an industrial action, especially that of serving a 15 days notice and this was not done.

Mohammed, while trying to explain why government decided to increase the pump price said “the current problem is not really about subsidy removal. It is about that Nigeria is broke. Pure and simple!

“It is like somebody who has been earning N100,000 a month and he is faced with a situation where his employer says henceforth you will be earning N10,000 a month. He would need to make some very painful decisions and some very painful adjustments. That is the situation with Nigeria today. A few months ago, we were earning as much as $100 for every barrel of crude. In the months of February and March, we were short of…so, we no longer have the resources, the foreign exchange to bring in refined fuel products. And our economy is shrinking.

“We appreciate the fact that the decision is going to affect everybody. We appreciate what we are going through, but Nigerians should also know that the government has the responsibility at times to take very difficult decisions. So, it is not always about popularity” he said.