May Day: Labour Calls For End To Bloodletting, Poor Wages

..Demands 65 Years Retirement Age For All Civil Servants

Organised Labour has issued a 20-point demand to the Federal Government to address the worsening socio-economic situations in Nigeria, including the escalating killings and bloodshed across the nation.

At the national May Day celebration, otherwise known as Workers’ Day, in Abuja, leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, among others, called for justice, pro-people economic reforms and democratic accountability in Nigeria.

With the theme “Reclaiming the Civic Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship,” the two labour centres in a joint address demanded, “An urgent reversal of the unconstitutional suspension of the elected Government of Rivers state via a State of Emergency which is alien to our laws; That the federal and state governments should cease actions that erode the civic space but should encourage and deepen it for the sake of our nation; An immediate salary adjustment in sync with Economic realities; That Government explains what exactly it is taxing in the PAYE; The withdrawal of the Tax Bills before the National Assembly to allow Nigerian workers sit at table where it is being conceived.”

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called for the upward review of the retirement age for all categories of civil servants.

NLC president, Joe Ajaero, made this demand at the May Day celebration in Eagle Square, Abuja, on Thursday.

“It is imperative to extend the revised retirement age of 65 years or 40 years of service currently enjoyed by teachers, health professionals, and judges to all public servants,” Ajaero said.

Ajaero had previously vowed that the NLC would do everything to meet with President Bola Tinubu on the matter.

The 65 years retirement age, and 40 years of work for retirement from service, was approved in an Act signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari.