3rd June, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Some banks in Lagos have refused to join the ongoing strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC.
Organized labour had begun the industrial action, after the federal government’s failure to meet the unions’ minimum wage demand.
Following the commencement of the industrial action on Monday, our correspondent who went around observed that banks in Ogba Aguda, Ikeja, and Ojodu Berger were all open.
A young banker who did not want his name mentioned told our correspondent that workers were informed to resume work on Monday but to dress casually.
A visit to a branch of Zenith Bank in Aguda by our correspondent confirmed that the bank opened but no activities were going on in the bank due to network.
Inside the GTbank located at the Computer Village, Ikeja, activities were also going on as observed by our correspondent.
Despite earlier pleas by the Federal Government for consideration, the organised labour on Monday commenced an indefinite strike to push for a new national minimum wage for workers.
The industrial action followed a series of unsuccessful negotiations involving both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and government’s representatives .
Representatives of labour had on May 28 walked out of the Tripartite Committee meeting on minimum wage after the government increased its offer from N57,000 to N60,000.
Recall that the government and the Organised Private Sector had initially proposed ₦48,000, then 54,000 and N57,000, which were all rejected by labour.
The organised labour had also proposed N615,000 as new minimum wage, but later came down to N497,000 and then to N494,000, to reflect the current rising cost of living.