The Federal Government has set up a steering committee to consider the various demands presented by the organised labour following the removal of fuel subsidy.
The Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Special Duties and Strategy, Dele Alake, and Presidents of the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Unions of Nigeria, Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo, revealed this to journalists in Abuja on Monday.
This was after a meeting between a Federal Government team led by Chief of Staff to the President, femi Gbajabiamila and leaders of the NLC and TUC yesterday.
Monday’s meeting was the fourth between the FG and organised labour since the discontinuance of petroleum subsidy, as announced by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023.
Alake said Monday’s meeting focused on the creation of a steering committee to which several sub-committees would report on various aspects of the demands made by the organised labour.
“Both parties went through the list and we ticked off the viable ones. Those things are broken into three different categories – the immediate, those that are low-hanging fruit; then the medium term and the long term,” Alake said, adding that: “There’s a steering committee that will be like a clearing house.”
The TUC President, Osifo, said, “The government came up with what they thought would work, and we made some input. From this night, we are going to continue the work in order to have that framework together.
“Once we have the framework, then we will agree. Anything we are putting together must be concluded in eight weeks. Everything must be rolled out within that time.”
Osifo said the presidential steering committee would superintend over other technical subcommittees to consider key aspects of the talks, such as the rollout of converted mass transit vehicles running on Compressed Natural Gas as well as those to review the minimum wage.
According to the NLC President, Ajaero, “This meeting is intentionally to give life to those agreements that were reached. We have set up committees in those key areas to commence work on them to make sure that we wrap up in the next eight weeks.”
