NLC dismisses strike notice
President, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Dr Tommy Okon, has said that stopping the N35,000 payment of the wage award to federal civil servants by Federal Government will be a recipe for industrial action. 
  
The Guardian gathered that the Federal Government only paid the wage award for September but failed to pay for October and November. Payment of the wage award was agreed upon during a meeting that was held between the Federal Government and organised Labour, following the removal of fuel subsidy.
 
In an interview with The Guardian, he warned the government against going back on the agreement it made with workers as regards the wage award to help mitigate the effects of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol.
 
Noting that the government has not also invited labour to explain why they have not paid, he said the organised labour would soon come up with a strong position on the suspension of the payment of the wage award to civil servants.
 
Okon, who is also the Deputy General of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), said: “So, we are waiting; if by the end of December, they have not paid, I can assure you that at the next meeting of our National Executive Council (NEC), there will be a resolution for industrial action.
 
“I want to believe that the government should not be insensitive not to know that stopping the N35,000 wage award would be a recipe for an industrial crisis.”  
 
“I want to also believe that government is also aware that the poverty situation in the land does not favour the delay in the payment of the N35,000 wage award and any other amount for both federal, state and local government and government will not take the gentility of the organised Labour for granted. We have shown them that we have the capacity and they are aware. 
 
He advised the government not to wait for Labour to demand the payment since, according to him, government agreed not on gunpoint and should not delay the payment.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has refuted reports making the rounds of a nationwide strike action by the NLC and TUC to commence today, urging all affiliates and state councils of both unions for maximum compliance.
 
The NLC, in a statement by its Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, described the purported strike notice, signed by the General Secretary of NLC, Emmanuel Ugboaja and Secretary General of the TUC, Nuhu Toro, as fake.