Prospects of a quick fix to the impasse over a new minimum wage dimmed yesterday as the Federal Government headed to court to stop the planned strike by organised labour.
The government approached the National Industrial Court (NIC) to prevent labour from embarking on its Tuesday, November 6, 2018, industrial action.
The Guardian learnt that an ex-parte motion tagged, ‘FGN & Attorney-General vs. NLC and TUC’ was filed at a court in Abuja.
But reacting to the development, Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Peters Adeyemi said the judicial option proves government’s determination to shortchange Nigerian workers and an unwillingness to embrace dialogue. He appealed to the judiciary not to allow itself be used against the people.
“I don’t think that is sufficient to stop the protest because it is the right of Nigerians to protest and this right is guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution which is supreme to any other law of the land,” Adeyemi said.
But labour earlier yesterday also dug its trench deeper, indicating it would not be the first to blink.
Following Tuesday’s resolve by state governors to pay N22,500, instead of the N30,000 it is demanding, labour vexatiously returned to its pre-tripartite negotiation stance of N66,500