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Minimum wage: Labour shelves planned strike in Cross River
The labour unions in Cross River have postponed the planned strike slated to commence on Wednesday after a breakdown of negotiation with the government.
However, the organised labour will begin a two-day warning strike in the strike on November 25.
The Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state, Mr. Monday Ogbodum, disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday in Calabar.
He said the decision to embark on the warning strike was taken at the meeting of various organs of organised labour in the state on Tuesday.
Ogbodum said the government had again invited labour to reconvene on Thursday after the unions staged a walkout from the meeting of the Joint Public Service Negotiating and Implementation Committee on the new minimum wage on Monday.
He said: “We have just concluded our meetings and we agree that we will shelve the planned strike for Wednesday for a warning strike that will take place on Monday and Tuesday.
“As for Thursday’s meeting, we will attend and if they are still not bringing anything concrete to the table by Thursday, we will have no option but to embark on the national strike slated for December 1.
“But the warning strike will take place on Monday and Tuesday.”
The labour unions blamed the government’s inaction towards the implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage as the reason for their walkout from the meeting.
READ ALSO: FCT workers to smile as Wike approves N70,000 minimum wage
“From the look of things, this same committee seems not ready for anything. We have heard from Grapevine that the government is not looking at commencing implementation until January 2025.
“We worry that the Cross River Governor was a member of this committee that gave birth to the new wage.
“He was South-South representative in that committee and he is the one lagging while other states have already made pronouncement on this new wage to the workers.
“Before now, he has assured us that he will implement whatever that is agreed upon. As we speak, there is no sign of seriousness that the government is ready for the workers,” the TUC chairman stated.
Also speaking on Monday, the NLC chairman in the state, Mr. Gregory Olayi, said the labour staged a walkout because the government representative in the committee was not serious.
“In our last meeting on Thursday, they formed a technical committee which we had expected would come up with something for us to discuss.
“They came empty and unprepared from the look of things and we had to stage a walkout until they were prepared for us,” he said.
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