The Federal Government and Organised Labour reached an agreement yesterday on measures to reduce transport fares and the prices of essential commodities, particularly foodstuffs.
This development coincided with a call from the House of Representatives for the government to reverse the recent petrol price hike and implement immediate measures to stabilize petrol and cooking gas prices. Suggested interventions include temporary price relief measures, tax reductions, and subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas for low-income households, according to Vanguard.
Following a meeting held in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the government also committed to convening a discussion with state governors to ensure the implementation of the new minimum wage of N70,000 across the country by October.
Sources at the meeting revealed that the government and Organised Labour also agreed to maintain ongoing engagement and discussions to improve the previously strained relationship between the two parties.
“Government promised to release over 2,000 Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, conversion kits in the first instance. It also promised to release 45 CNG buses to Labour to complete the 90 earlier promised organised labour.
“As part of efforts at crashing transport fares across the country, the Federal Government will hold a meeting with state governors to fully embrace the CNG buses. This will also affect the cost of foodstuffs as it will reduce the costs of transporting food items from different locations to consumers drastically. These are parts of efforts to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on the citizens.
““The government also promised to summon a meeting of the economic council to impress it upon state governors to ensure the new minimum wage takes off across the country this month.
“It also promised to incorporate labour into the economic council, so labour will participate and monitor economic policies of government, instead of government throwing policies at labour and Nigerians that may result in agitation or protest.
“They agreed that it is better to ‘jaw-jaw than war-war’, meaning, there will be continuous dialogue between government and labour.
“The government also promised to hasten and complete the refineries. They said almost five refineries are about to be completed,’’ according to the source.
Another source indicated that the issue of the government failing to honour agreements was addressed during the meeting. The government acknowledged its shortcomings in this area and committed to making necessary changes to improve compliance with prior agreements.
The joint National Executive Council meeting between the two labour centers, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, was convened to update members on the outcomes of the discussions with the government.
