The Federal Government and organised Labour, have reach a truce over plans by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to embark on strike against the ongoing cash crunch.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige made this known on Tuesday while fielding questions at a briefing organized by the Presidential Media Team at the Presidential Villa.
Recall that the NLC had last week, issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to mandate the CBN and commercial banks to end the cash scarcity, warning of a nationwide protest and the picketing of the apex bank and its branches across the country, from Wednesday, March 29.
According to the minister, the stroke may have been averted with the dialogues between the CBN and the coordinated ministry.
The Minister, who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, and other senior officials of the Ministry, said as at the moment, the issue to be discussed by NLC in the National Executive Council meeting would no longer be issues of protest, which he said had already been averted.
“Now they have all answered our calls because we are the Chief Conciliators. In my opening remark, I said I’ve noticed that there’s already a dialogue going on and there’s also implementation and the Nigerian Labour Congress agreed that there was some thawing at the surface of the icing that was there.
“They said they will call up their National Executive Council meeting because the initial decision to give that ultimatum was given by this same Council. Members of the Council reside in the states and the local governments so they will come up today, which is Tuesday, the 28th, to review the situation because much as it is, the important thing is that we have emphasized to them that we have apprehended this dispute.
“By Section 7:8 of the Trade Dispute Act, once the Minister apprehends and starts conciliation on it, you maintain status quo ante bellum. So they have gone back now to review the situation. If they’re not satisfied with what they see, they will come back to me and I’ll invite the CBN again.
“But for now, the issue of discussion is no longer strike, the issue of discussion is implementation and how far it’s gone and how far it affects Nigerian workers and the general population.
“So that is it, the final decision will be done today by NEC and they will then do a resolution, of course, inform me and CBN what their resolution is. But like I said, we have apprehended and we are now conciliating”, he assured.
Confirming the truce, NLC president, Joe Ajaero, said the Union has extended its planned action against the CBN over cash crunch by two weeks.
Ajaero, who spoke at a press conference in conjunction with the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in Abuja on Tuesday, said they had decided to give the CBN two more weeks to monitor the level of their compliance with the demand.
