Abuja, Nigeria
The workers of the FCT area councils under the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have rejected the request made by the six area council chairmen to delay the implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage until January 2025.
This action they said was in response to the non-implementation of the minimum wage, workers across all six area councils initiated an indefinite strike on Sunday, following instructions from the NLC’s national body.
Comrade Stephen Knabayi, the President of the NLC in the FCT, who spoke with Daily Trust on Thursday, stated that the union had met with the area council chairmen, who requested the postponement of the minimum wage implementation to January 2025. The chairmen cited the outstanding arrears of primary school teachers and other unpaid entitlements as reasons for the delay.
Knabayi confirmed that the union rejected the chairmen’s request, maintaining that the minimum wage must be implemented before the end of December 2024. He expressed disappointment that workers, including primary school teachers in the FCT, are enduring severe hardships due to the current economic situation in the country.
“Actually, the union met with the area council chairmen and they requested that the union should give them till January 2025 to implement the minimum wage because of some commitment. But we insisted that the implementation should commence in December 2024. So, that is how things stand between the union and the council chairmen at the moment,” he said.
Knabayi said the strike would continue until the minimum wage is implemented.
