Workers have grounded activities in all the six (6) area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) after commencing an indefinite strike on December 1.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike has maintained deafening silence as the indefinite strike enters Day 8 on Sunday.
It was learnt that pregnant women, some at the point of birth, were sent away at the Primary Health Care Centres spread across the 6 area councils of the FCT.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), FCT Council had directed all workers in the six area councils of the FCT to proceed on the indefinite strike to protest against non-implementation of the N70,000 new national minimum wage.
The NLC had in a communique following a meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC) held on November 8 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, appealed to FCT council chairmen to implement the new national minimum wage.
Chairman of the council, Mr Knabanyi Adalo, however, said that the chairmen had refused to respond to the demand for implementation of the minimum wage in their respective area councils.
Adalo said that in response to this inaction, the organised labour in its State Administrative Council meeting held on November 12, unanimously resolved to adhere strictly to the national directive to embark on the indefinite strike.
He said the directive was subject to any State government’s failure to implement the national minimum wage on or before the last day of November.
“The state administrative council also noted with deep frustration the persistent delay and outright refusal by the area councils’ chairmen to pay some pending entitlements to the workers, including the outstanding arrears of primary school teachers,” Adalo said.
According to him, failure to implement the new national minimum wage is a gross violation of the law and total disregard to the welfare and well-being of workers in the area councils.
Meanwhile, chairmen of the 6 FCT area councils had pleaded with the workers to implement the N70,000 minimum wage from January, 2025, which was rejected by the NLC.
Adalo confirmed to Daily Trust that the union had met with the area council chairmen and revealed that the chairmen cited backlog of some pending primary school teachers’ arrears and other entitlements for posting implementation of the minimum wage to January, 2025.
He explained that the union rejected the council chairmen’s plea and insisted that the minimum wage should be implemented before the end of December 2024, adding that it was unfortunate workers and primary school teachers in the FCT were going through tough time due to the economic hardship 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 this December, 2024. So, that is how things stand between the union and the council chairmen at the moment,” he said.
Adalo said the strike will continue until the minimum wage is implemented.