By Simon Ebegbulem

LEADERS of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the Trade Union Congress, TUC, and the Joint Negotiating Committee, JNC, on Monday called off the strike they declared six days earlier.

The labour leaders declared the strike just two weeks after signing a new minimum wage agreement with government on July 11.

They embarked on the strike after collecting the new wage allegedly to support members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, who sought to benefit from the new minimum wage despite a separate wage structure called Teachers’ Salary Structure, TSS.

Besides that, the agreement, Labour Vanguard gathered, had a proviso that non-core civil servants who discover that their sectoral salary scales fell short of the minimum wage should notify the government by writing to the government for inclusion.

Information available indicated some sectoral labour leaders such as the Non-Academic staff and judicial workers wrote to the government and had been included to benefit from the new wage.

Never the less, extraneous demands by the state labour leaders included a 3-month tax holiday for workers to “enjoy” the new wage; issue of VAT deductions by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, from Local Government allocation; non-democratisation of Local Governments; deductions from Local Government statutory allocation and remittance of 10 percent of Internally-Generated Revenue to local Governments.

Some had argued that either the labour leaders did not understand the agreement they signed or were instigated by other motives.

Whatever side of the divide, the government did not take the workers’ action lightly.

Head of the government, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who was out of the country when the workers went on strike, at a meeting with the labour leaders on Friday, August 5, tagged “The moment of truth”, lambasted the labour leaders for not only betrayal of trust, but an abuse of comradeship among others.

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State and Comrade Emmanuel Ademokun, Chairman NLC Edo State at a meeting, between the Government and organised labour leaders on the workers' strike in Edo State.

 Oshiomhole faults Edo labour

Faulting the strike, Governor Oshiomhole said there was a clause in the agreement reached with labour on July 11 at paragraph 2 which left the door open for negotiation on other sectors who felt aggrieved.

According to him, “I did emphasise to you and I will like to re-emphasise it even now that this government has not refused, and this government has not dismissed any case for a review of Teachers salary consequent upon the implementation of the minimum wage.

All I said and I want to maintain even now is that the teachers have to draw our attention formally to how this implementation of minimum wage upsets the TSS and subsequently we will discuss and find mutually acceptable solution.”

He said other sectors including the Non-Teaching Staff of Post-Primary Education Board and Judicial Service workers which were aggrieved by the implementation of the new minimum wage and wrote to the Government had been captured in the new structure.

On VAT, the governor said VAT debt was incurred by local governments in the past administrations amounting to over N2.3billion and that the money was deducted at source by the FIRS.

He asked, “Chairman to your knowledge, VAT proceed, does it accrue to the Edo state government?  Value Added Tax is a tax you pay on services and it is remitted to the federal government not to Edo state government and you are on strike because your local government , or a local government not a local worker, a local government was compelled to remit VAT? VAT is a federal law, when Edo state government awards a contract or makes procurement of any such including vehicles, roads, and hospitals; there is a VAT which we have to pay. This VAT, at the end of the month Edo state government proceeds to remit to FIRS, not because I want t do so but that is the law.”

On the alleged deductions from local government allocation, the Governor said, Just last month, I called the Attorney-General and said see how you can get a court order to stop federal government from deducting money from local government at source, because the federal government purported to have awarded a contract for the building of health centres in all the local government and I have not seen any of those health centres.

They claimed to have gotten a high court judgment to the extent that the federal government was right to have awarded contract on behalf of local governments running into billions of naira and under that purported contract, they have been deducting through the federation account at source from each of our local government over N7 million.

 Abuse of friendship

Continuing, he said, “I have tried my best to live up to the tradition of labour where ever any worker has been oppressed to my knowledge, I interfere but that is not to say that I will surrender the governance of the state to people who have other agenda other than their legitimate claim.

That I will not do and I need to put you on notice, quick, Don’t abuse the fact of our comradeship. Don’t abuse the fact that we have a common background, because you know that there are rules of engagement.

There are rules of procedure and if you allow yourself to be pushed by political forces, you will now be biting more than you can chew and it is only your jaw that will break.

Once you have abused my friendship, you abused myself, you abused my comradeship, you abuse my compassion, you abuse my thought, the  things I admire, I also will use them to fight particularly when you are taking a contract from a political class.”

“Government is not powerless and I intend to also invoke my powers, because according to you, you said you have embarked on a battle and the reason for this battle is that Edo state was in a hurry to implement the minimum wage. Therefore you must discredit me, but I do not want to join you to break the law but I will comply with the law including that of freedom of association. I have informed the president in Abuja about your political strike and am also dealing with it politically.”