Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Festus Osifo has rejected the claim that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) can negotiate salaries and allowances on behalf of all Nigerian workers, insisting that the TUC must be involved in such talks.
Osifo described the N70,000 transport allowance recently approved by President Bola Tinubu as an aberration, saying the NLC could not act for the TUC without its participation or consultation.He made the remarks on Monday while appearing on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, amid ongoing disagreement between the two labour centres over negotiations with the Federal Government.
“There is nowhere in ILO regulations that says a trade centre cannot negotiate for its members. It is not there!” Osifo said. He explained that when dealing with the International Labour Organisation, the lists of members from both the TUC and NLC are combined and submitted through the Ministry of Labour, requiring the two bodies to work together.
While acknowledging that the NLC has more affiliates (about 60 compared with the TUC’s roughly 40), Osifo stressed that this does not give the NLC the right to negotiate for TUC members.“You cannot negotiate for a body that is represented, for a body that has a trade union. You cannot negotiate for them on their behalf! It is not there anywhere!” he declared. “Yes, if we go to negotiations — I sit down, you sit down, and we agree.”
Osifo challenged NLC President Joe Ajaero to produce any ILO regulation that allows one labour centre to negotiate without the other being present or consulted.
He also disputed the claim that the meeting which produced the N70,000 allowance was a proper Joint Public Sector Negotiating Council (JNC) session, noting that neither the Minister nor Ajaero is a member of the council and that the required quorum was not met.
The TUC leader further criticised the way consequential adjustments were applied after the last minimum wage increase, arguing that the method used left federal workers with inadequate pay.
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