NLC warns against attempts to divide labour movement

• Focus on workers’ welfare, not NLC-TUC rift – Osifo

• Says 2023 wage award failed to benefit many workers

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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned against attempts to divide the labour movement, urging the media to resist efforts to destabilise organised labour through misleading reports and propaganda.

NLC President Festus Ajaero made the call during his remarks at the third annual conference of the Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria (LACAN) in Abuja on Thursday, under the theme “The Future of Work: Minimum Wage, Economic Reforms and 2027 Elections.”

He said the future of work must be defined by workers themselves and anchored on social protection, fair recruitment, job security and the right to organise.

The NLC president, who was represented by Assistant Secretary-General Chris Onyeka, warned that the growing informalisation of labour, platform-based employment and erosion of standard employment relationships threatened workers’ hard-won rights, particularly collective bargaining.

According to him, Nigerian workers are increasingly exposed to casualisation, poor remuneration and a digital economy that extracts value from their labour without guaranteeing adequate protection.

Ajaero said the debate on the future of work must also shape conversations around the new national minimum wage, economic reforms and the 2027 general elections.

He maintained that minimum wage was not a charitable gesture but the price of labour, warning that any economic reform that suppressed wages in the name of stabilisation would work against employees.

The NLC urged LACAN to strengthen its position within the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), noting that a stronger union was necessary to protect journalists and advance press freedom.

It also charged labour correspondents to provide clarity on industrial relations issues, particularly recent resolutions between organised labour and the Federal Government, rather than amplify narratives capable of creating division within the labour movement.

As the 2027 elections approach, Ajaero urged journalists to hold politicians accountable by demanding clear plans for workers’ welfare and ensuring that negotiations for a new national minimum wage produced a living wage.

He said: “Minimum wage is not a charitable gesture; it is the price of labour power, and any economic reform that suppresses wages in the name of ‘stabilisation’ is a reform against the worker, not for the economy.

“Report the facts; do not amplify propaganda. We need a media that will force politicians to debate their plans for the working class.”

Also speaking, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, urged journalists to focus on workers’ welfare rather than the disagreements between the NLC and the TUC over the Federal Government’s proposed N70,000 monthly transport allowance.

Osifo, who was represented by the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Bosun Olabiyi-Agoro, said the two labour centres must first strengthen their unity before engaging the government, warning that the authorities should not exploit differences between them.

He said the TUC’s position on the proposed transport allowance was informed by the failure of the 2023 wage award to benefit many workers across the country.

According to him, several state governments failed to implement the award, while the Federal Government did not pay workers in line with the agreement reached.

He said the TUC had consequently adopted a different approach to ensure that any new relief was incorporated into workers’ salaries and reached more beneficiaries.

He urged reporters to give greater attention to the substance of labour negotiations, adding that the disagreement over the approach to workers’ relief should not overshadow the shared objective of improving their welfare.

Osifo also cautioned the government against playing divide-and-rule between the two labour centres, noting that an agreement reached with one might not necessarily bind the other.

On the future of work, the TUC president urged workers to acquire new skills and retrain themselves to remain relevant as artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies transform workplaces.

He said some companies had already invited him to discuss how AI could perform tasks previously handled by employees, warning that workers who failed to adapt could face difficulties retaining their jobs.

Osifo further urged the Federal Government to channel additional revenue from rising crude oil prices towards improving the welfare of Nigerians, rather than allowing the benefits to be concentrated in the hands of a few.

He said rising fuel prices had increased transportation costs and worsened the financial pressure on workers.

Osifo said: “It is agreed by all parties today, whether NLC, TUC or even the government, that the state of workers in Nigeria is deplorable, that workers’ remuneration, workers’ entitlement is almost at a grand scale. That one is not bringing any form of disagreement.

“The only little thing that is causing is how we now rectify that error.”