The Federal Government and Organised Labour reached a significant agreement on Wednesday aimed at reducing transport fares and the prices of essential commodities, particularly foodstuffs.
This development comes amid rising public concerns over inflation and the increasing cost of living.
The agreement was announced following a meeting held in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) on the same day that the House of Representatives urged the Federal Government to reverse the recent hike in petrol prices.
The lawmakers called for immediate measures to stabilize petrol and cooking gas prices through targeted interventions, including temporary price relief measures, tax reductions, and subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for low-income households.
During the meeting, the government also committed to convening a discussion with state governors to ensure the implementation of the new minimum wage of ₦70,000 across the country starting in October.
Sources from the meeting who spoke with Vanguard indicated that both the government and Labour representatives agreed to continue engagement and dialogue 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,” a source told Vanguard last night.
The sources equally said “government promised to pay all outstanding arrears and wage awards to workers and inaugurate all the boards labour has representatives.”
One of the sources said “all these are promises, but the good thing is that it was agreed that the meeting will be a continuous process.”
Another source also said the issue of government not honouring agreement was raised, adding that government admitted that it did not do well in that regard and promised to change.
Asked if labour was satisfied with the meeting, the source said: “It is not about satisfaction but a way forward from the past where government was not discussing with organised labour.
‘’If this trend or practice continues, there is every possibility that disagreements between government and labour will reduce.”