Labour Protests Federal Govt‘s Failure To Pay N35,000 Monthly Award

Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has kicked against the federal government’s failure to continue the payment of the N35,000 monthly wage award to workers in the public sector.

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, TUC national president, Comrade Festus Osifo, said that the civil servants only received the pay for the month of September.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu had in October, 2023 announced the amount for Nigerian workers, beginning from September 1st to reduce the hardship occasioned by fuel subsidy removal.

But Osifo said the development was unacceptable to the Nigerian workers and that the government should remove bottlenecks in the wage award processes and pay the workers their dues.

TUC also kicked against the debt-to-revenue based national budget submitted by the President to the National Assembly, saying the budget was based on a deficit that was not matched by the national revenue, and that the government was borrowing too much to finance its expenditure.

The labour centre similarly called on the government to address the issue of tax revenue and reduce government wasteful spending at all levels.

„On the issue of a wage award, we could recall that a payment has been made just once, both as we speak now members in the federal civil service have not received a wage award since October. We wish to call on government to fast track all the processes, we learn that they are currently putting some things in place to pay this money but people are not ready to listen to excuses,“ he said.

The labour centre also announced the admission of five new affiliates including the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and National Association of Medical and Dental Academics, National Association of Nigerian Butchers among others.

 TUC also discussed issues related to labour law review, pension, and unionisation in the hotel sector where it said the labour minister should consult with the labour before submitting the documents to the Federal Executive Council for review.