The United Labour Congress has threatened to join the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), if the federal government failed to meet the demands of the lecturers within two weeks.
Addressing the press after its Central Working Committee meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, the leadership of the union also demanded the immediate payment of all the salary arrears of Nigerian workers at all levels of government.
The President of the union, Joseph Ajaero, condemned the habit of collecting Paris club debt refund to pay workers’ salaries and using it for other purposes, saying the act was punishable by law.
According to him, the Bill in the National Assembly proposing the prosecution of persons involved in hate speech was a guise to protect the ruling elite from being held accountable by Nigerians.
He called for the annulment of the bill, saying it aimed to control free speech.
Other requests the union expects to be met in the next two weeks are, “the immediate inclusion of all representatives of labour in the various committees, agencies and directorates of Government and not singling out just one centre for these purposes and negating the tenets of the nation’s laws.
“The immediate inauguration of the national minimum wage committee in line so that it can commence sitting. The withholding of registration certificate of the ULC be stopped and the certificate released forthwith so that the nation’s Industrial Relations clime will be made more inclusive and robust.”
In addition, the union made up of 25 industrial unions including the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and National Union of Electricity Employees, requested for the rehabilitation of all roads leading to petroleum refineries and depots nationwide to avoid loss of lives, wastage of products and properties.
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