… Vows to shun any meeting with Lalong
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja Abuja
In order to address the execution of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that both parties signed about palliative measures for the removal of gasoline subsidies, Organised Labour said that it would meet with representatives of the federal government on Monday.
NLC disclosed this at a press conference led by its President, Joe Ajaero over the weekend in Abuja.
As the 30-day implementation window granted by the Organised Labour ends this week, Ajaero said the meeting is anticipated to assess the degree of implementation of the 12-point Memorandum of Understanding reached on October 2, 2023.
The Labour Centre had threatened a new strike last week, alleging that Simon Lalong, the Minister of Labour and Employment, had violated item 6 of the MoU and the ratified agreement by siding with a faction of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) leadership.
Although the Minister refuted the allegation, saying that it was baseless.
But NLC president, said that the labour center will no longer attend any meetings with the federal government where Lalong would be present.
According to Ajaero, the Monday’s meeting was at the instance of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
He said: “Hopefully, we may meet tomorrow with the Federal Government, all things being equal on their report template, to know whether all those issues have been met in the last 30 day.
“That is if that meeting hold’s without the Minister of Labour, because he will not be present in any meetings with us.
“So, any meeting the Federal Government calls today with the Ministry of Labour in attendance, that meeting will not hold. We can’t meet with him and you would have noticed that of late, meetings are no longer called at the Ministry of Labour, because, he is not in control. Therefore, to depend on him for resolutions on issues, taking place about labour, is to waste our time.
“If you watch, tomorrow’s invitation that we got, was from the office of the Chief of Staff to the president and that is where previous meetings were held.
“So, the current minister of a labour, has no power or place in the current industrial relations practiced in Nigeria.”