Hardship: We Are Tired Of FG’s ‘Soon’ Promises – TUC
Festus Osifo, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), has said that the union is tired of the promises by the Ministry of Labour to implement the union’s demands soon.
TUC’s demands included wage awards for civil servants to cushion the hardship occasioned by fuel subsidy removal, tax exemption for some categories of workers, as well as setting up structures for the effective implementation of the palliatives from the federal government.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, had previously assured Nigerian workers that the government would soon conclude the issue of wage award.
The minister also appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) not to embark on its planned indefinite strike, and allow government resolve all pending issues.
But in an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, Osifo said the union now wanted concrete actions.
He said, “In the last meeting we had with the Ministry of Labour, they told us the same thing that the president was out of the country and when he comes back they believe that he will make the pronouncement.
“But I saw it this morning that he said the pronouncement will come soon but again we are really tired of soon, we want a definite pronouncement, we want definite solution to this lingering issues.
“At the end of the day, we have been hearing dates, we have been hearing it will come today, tomorrow or next tomorrow, we are relatively tired of promises, all we want is action.
“Nigerians are tired of lot of meetings, lots of promises, what we want is concrete action, so we are tired of promises and promises.” (Daily Trust)