The Nigeria Labour Congress has threatened to boycott its meeting with the Federal Government on Monday, October 30, 2023, should the Minister of Labour Simon Lalong show up.
The President of NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, issued the threat while speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Sunday after briefing them on the plights of workers in Imo State.
Ajaero slammed Lalong for not being able to establish a cordial relationship with organised labour.
“Hopefully, we may meet tomorrow (Monday) with the Federal Government to see whether the agreement with organised labour on the fuel subsidy removal palliatives was met or not,” he said.
“If that meeting is to hold, it will be without the Minister of Labour and Employment, because we will not be part of any meeting with the Federal Government that the Minister of Labour and Employment will attend.”
Labour unions and the government have been in negotiations over their planned industrial action owing to the removal of fuel subsidy.
At the Sunday’s event, Ajaero also threatened to mobilise its members to storm Imo State on Wednesday, November 1.
He alleged that the Imo State Government is violating the rights of the workers in the state.
The NLC chief who claimed Governor Hope Uzodimma neglected their welfare, bemoaned that many of them have died because of the alleged lack of payment of their salaries.
He identified some of the infractions against workers by the Imo State Governor to include the alleged refusal to implement previous agreements especially the accord reached on January 9, 2021, outstanding salary arrears of about 20 months, unjust declaration of workers as ghost workers, declaration of pensioners as ghost workers and unsettled gratuity arrears among others.
He noted that pproximately 10,000 pensioners have been wrongly labelled as ghost pensioners resulting in over 22 months of unpaid pensions while about 11,000 workers have been branded by the Imo State Government as ghost workers.
Ajaero also decried the non-compliance with the national minimum wage by the state government, adding that Uzodimma has resisted the use of social dialogue and collective bargaining to resolve the issues
