NLC announces imminent strike over NASS’ decision to re-classify national minimum wage

The Nigeria Labour Congress has pronounced its scheduled strike action for March 10, 2021, over an imminent mandate by the Senate to remove the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.

According to the NLC, the protest would be held in the 36 states Houses of Assembly in reaction to the plans by the House of Representatives to alter the present wage structure.

This decision granted the Federal Government the autonomy to negotiate minimum wage for workers in the country.

In his remarks after an emergency National Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, March 2, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, vowed that the NLC would resist “any attempt to exterminate Nigeria’s working class.’’

Ripples Nigeria gathered last week that the Reps debated a bill to remove the powers to negotiate wage matters from the exclusive to the concurrent list.

Read also: NLC set for strike in states that refuse to pay N30,000 minimum wage

According to the lawmakers, this is due to the inability of state governors to pay the N30,000 minimum wage for the move.

However, Wabba stated that the workers would not watch “hard-fought rights which are global standards bastardised by opportunistic and narrow-thinking politicians.”

The communique jointly signed by Wabba and the acting General Secretary of the NLC, Ismail Bello, further noted that this is an attempt to undermine Nigeria’s working class.

He said, “The NEC decided that there will be a national protest action commencing from March 10, 2021, in the Federal Capital Territory and especially to the National Assembly.

“The NEC decided that should the need arise, it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike action, especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the national minimum wage from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.”

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