The Industriall Global Union has commended the outcomes of the Sunday negotiations between Organized Labour and the Federal Government over petroleum pricing and energy tariffs.
In his comment on the suspended industrial action by NLC and TUC, Comrade Issa Aremu, Vice President of Industriall Global Union said the burden is on the Federal Government to respect its sides of the bargain to avert the resumption of protests by organized labour.
Comrade Aremu who also addressed journalists on Monday morning (28-9-2020) at Kwara Labour House, Ilorin, said the joint communique jointly signed on Sunday by representatives of labour and the Federal government among others agreed to revive the moribund National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) before the end of the year 2020 to “institutionalize the process of tripartism and socio dialogue on socio – economic and major labour matters to forestall crisis”.
Comrade Aremu, who is a former Vice President of the NLC observed that reconstituted NLAC would facilitate sustainable social dialogue needed for industrial peace and social justice in county’s labour market.
The labour leader commended the labour negotiating teams for impressing on the Federal government to consider challenges in the downstream petroleum and power sectors beyond pricing to include local refining capacity and metering of consumers respectively. He also hailed the inclusive composition of the respective committees to consider all issues agreed upon within a defined time frame.
“OPEC just marked it’s 60th anniversary. It’s a sad commentary that Nigeria which once paraded four functioning refineries is the only OPEC member relying wholly on product imports. The only way to ensure sustainable Decent jobs in the downstream sector is through value addition in refineries” he said.
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