The Minister of Labor and Employment, Simon Lalong, appealed the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Monday to delay their two-day warning strike that was scheduled to start on Tuesday. Read Full Article
According to Bendelnews, the Minister allegedly made this demand on Monday in Abuja.
He provided a number of justifications for the appeal, including the reversal of FG's earlier victories, and promised to completely address the competing issues raised by the NLC if given some time to adjust to his new role.
The gains already being made in our pursuit of securing a better future for Nigerian workers and citizens in general, according to Lalong, make it necessary to appeal to the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to postpone its planned two-day warning strike.
"Further, I would ask that the Nigeria Labour Congress leadership give this government some time to settle and deal with the problems at hand holistically.
"It should be remembered that the President only recently swore in the cabinet of this administration, and all cabinet members have already gotten briefings from respective MDAs.
"Therefore, I and the Hon. Minister of State for Labour and Employment are getting briefed on some of the problems brought up by the NLC leadership. We will deal with them holistically throughout the coming weeks.
As a result, I'd like to take this chance to assure Nigerian workers that their government would never take them for granted or fail to value their cooperation and compassion.
We will continue to pursue policies that aim to create a lot of jobs across the board while also examining any urgent problems brought on by current government policies. This cannot be accomplished in an environment devoid of industrial tranquility.
Lalong added that although the ministry had not yet received from the NLC the notification of the planned strike needed by law, the ministry would be meeting with the labor leaders on Monday at 3 p.m. with the goal of putting an end to the walkout.