We Don’t Want Excuses, Pay N35,000 Wage Award To Workers, TUC Warns FG

The President of the Trade Union Congress, (TUC), Festus Osifo, has warned the Federal Government of the consequences surrounding its failure to pay the agreed N35,000 wage award

Osifo gave the warning in Abuja while addressing issues surrounding the federal government’s failure to honour the wage award agreement shortly after an emergency National Executive Council meeting.

Recall that THE WHISTLER in October 2023, reported that the Federal Government had agreed to pay workers the sum of N35,000 for six months as wage award.

The wage award was a commitment by the Federal Government to the removal of fuel subsidy to cushion its effect on civil servants.

However, the government honoured the agreement only in September 2023 but failed in the subsequent months.

Condemning the government’s failure, Osifo said, “We want the government to tighten their belts, government at all levels – the Federal Government, the state and local governments because a situation where they are asking Nigerians to keep tightening their belt and they (government officials) are living in affluence is not acceptable.

“There are workers in the Federal Civil Service, and they have not received a wage award since. We wish to call on the government to fast-track all these processes.

“We learned that they are currently putting some things in place to pay this money, but people are not ready to listen to excuses.

“All we want is that this money should keep hitting the account of our members until the new minimum wage is put in place. It is not an excuse, but a reality. We stand there for the ones that they have done, but they have ceased doing this for a couple of months.

“So, we call on the government to remove all the bottlenecks that have been experienced today regarding the wage award.”

The TUC president also revealed that five new unions have been approved by NEC to be affiliate members of the TUC.

The unions, according to Osifo are; the Law Officers Association of Nigeria; Congress of University Academies; the National Association of Medical and Dental Academies; National Butcher’s Employers Union of Nigeria and the Association of Telecoms, Information Technology, Cable and Satellite Network operators and Allied Services Employers of Nigeria.