N70,000 Transport Allowance Saga: ‘You can’t lead TUC from abroad,’ Ajaero tells Osifo

File: TUC President Festus Osifo (left) and NLC President Joe Ajaero.

*’Ajaero doesn’t understand Labour negotiations,’ Osifo retorts

By Victor Ahiuma-Young & Kafayat Kokumo

The rift between the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, has deepened following fresh accusations by NLC President, Joe Ajaero, that his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, is undermining the collective struggle of Nigerian workers.

Read Also: 2027: Obi couldn’t fix Anambra; Atiku will return to Dubai after election  —  Oshiomhole

Ajaero made the remarks on Monday during an interview on Channels TV’s ‘The Morning Brief’. He defended the NLC’s handling of the controversial N70, 000 transport allowance secured from the Federal Government, insisting that the agreement was the product of collective bargaining and not a unilateral arrangement by the NLC.

He also dismissed allegations that he was not a team player, declaring that the disagreements between the two labour centres should be examined based on facts rather than personal sentiments.

The NLC President further questioned the TUC leadership’s commitment to workers’ interests, challenging its president over his alleged absence from Nigeria and the whereabouts of buses allocated to the organisation under the government’s compressed natural gas, CNG, transportation initiative.

Usifo reacts

In a swift reaction, President of TUC, Festus Osifo, disagreed with the stance of Joe Ajaero, maintaining, among others, that the NLC cannot negotiate the salaries and allowances of TUC members in the public service.

However, speaking on the controversy surrounding the N70,000 transport allowance, Ajaero insisted that the agreement was negotiated with the Federal Government following an ultimatum issued by organised labour over the rising cost of living.

He said the meeting that produced the agreement was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Labour, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the Budget Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

According to him, the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council was also represented at the meeting, with its secretary signing the agreement on behalf of the council.

Ajaero said: “We issued an ultimatum to the government and were preparing to embark on industrial action. The government requested four days to meet with us at the Presidential Villa.

“Following that meeting, agreements were reached.Every collective bargaining process produces an agreement. In this instance, the N70,000 transport allowance was included in the agreement.

“I, therefore, do not understand the argument that the government simply gave us the money without any negotiation.”

He further argued that the negotiating council had eight unions on its trade union side, seven affiliated with the NLC and one with the TUC, insisting that the presence and participation of the council’s representatives validated the agreement.

Reacting to reports that some TUC-affiliated unions had rejected the allowance, Ajaero said such disagreements should be resolved internally within the affected organisations.

He stated that the agreement was a matter of public record, adding that the signatories and organisations represented could be verified.

On minimum wage

On the allegation that he had promised to submit the NLC’s minimum wage proposals to the TUC but failed to do so, Ajaero described the claim as incorrect.

He maintained that labour organisations were expected to submit their proposals directly to the appropriate minimum wage negotiating committee rather than through the media.

According to him, public statements suggesting particular minimum wage figures should not be confused with formal submissions to a negotiating committee.

He said: “You cannot present an organisation’s position as a formal submission to a minimum wage committee that has not yet been established.

“It is when the committee resumes its work that each group will submit its proposal, supported by relevant justifications. You do not submit your proposal through the media,” he said.

The NLC president also rejected the suggestion that workers should wait until the next minimum wage negotiations before receiving any form of financial relief, arguing that interventions were necessary to cushion the effects of inflation and the rising cost of living.

He explained that salary increases must follow established collective bargaining procedures involving labour, employers and government.

“There is a difference between his ideological orientation and mine. He comes from a capitalist perspective, while I come from the tradition of proletarian struggle and trade union leadership,” Ajaero said.

He describing the disagreement between the two labour leaders as ideological rather than merely personal.

The NLC President contended that government could not simply increase workers’ salaries without establishing an appropriate negotiating framework involving the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, labour representatives and government.

CNG buses

On allegations that his involvement in the CNG initiative was motivated by personal business interests, Ajaero denied having any such interest and said the initiative predated his current administration.

He recalled that discussions on CNG transportation began during the previous NLC administration, when he served as Deputy President, adding that the union had advocated private-sector participation to ensure the success of the programme.

However, he criticised what he described as excessive government control of the initiative, arguing that it had hindered its implementation.

Turning the allegation against the TUC leadership, Ajaero questioned the whereabouts of the buses allocated to the organisation under the government’s transportation intervention.

He said the NLC had received 90 buses and funding to support their fuel requirements for approximately 30 months, adding that the buses had been commissioned across different geopolitical zones.

“Where are the 90 buses allocated to the TUC? Are they still operating, or have they developed wings?” he asked.

Ajaero maintained that the buses were intended to ease transportation difficulties faced by Nigerian workers and the general public, challenging the TUC to demonstrate what it had done with its own allocation.

‘He lives abroad’

The NLC president also accused the TUC president of being an absentee leader, alleging that he lived outside Nigeria and travelled into the country mainly to attend meetings before returning abroad.

He further questioned the TUC president’s participation in meetings connected with his responsibilities on the board of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), insisting that leadership positions in central labour organisations required a consistent presence in the country.

Ajaero challenged the TUC president and the Nigerian Immigration Service to establish how much time he had spent in Nigeria during the year.

He said: “You cannot live abroad while holding a leadership position in a central labour organisation.

“The NLC president also denied claims that he had failed to maintain communication with his TUC counterpart, saying he had repeatedly attempted to reach him to harmonise their positions on minimum wage negotiations.

According to Ajaero, he sent messages to the TUC president around June or July, proposing discussions on how both organisations could align their positions, but the proposed conversation never took place.

He added that the TUC president had indicated that he was in transit and would return his call, but no further discussion followed.

Ajaero consequently dismissed allegations that his leadership style was responsible for the strained relationship between the two organisations.

“We are not fighting. What I observed in his interview, however, was that the discussion appeared personal rather than issue-based,” he said.

On his part, the TUC President, Festus Osifo, on Monday, disagreed with the stance of Joe Ajaero, NLC President, over whose responsibility it is to negotiate salaries and allowances of Nigerian workers with the federal government.

Osifo’s response comes as the labour unions bicker over the N70,000 transportation allowance recently approved for workers by President Bola Tinubu.

The TUC President, while appearing as a guest on Channels TV’s ‘The Morning Brief’ on Monday, described the N70,000 agreement by the NLC President as an aberration, saying that the TUC was not carried along in the negotiations.

“Listening to Ajaero again today, I really pity the Labour movement and the quality of leaders that have been inflated on the NLC.

“As I listened to Ajaero today, I was wondering if it is the same NLC that produced the likes of Adams Oshiomhole, Hassan Sumonu, Ayuba Wabba and so on.

“There is nowhere in ILO regulations that says a trade centre cannot negotiate for its members. It is not there! It is just that if you are going to the ILO, it is tripartite – the labour, government and the employers.

“And in describing that, it means that the list of the TUC members is joined together with that of the NLC and submitted to the Ministry of Labour, who forwards it to the ILO.

“In that case, the two bodies must come together. We are not contesting the fact that NLC has more affiliates.

“But what we are saying is that you have about 60 affiliates while we have about 40. You cannot! You cannot negotiate for a body that is represented, for a body that has a trade union.

“You cannot negotiate for them on their behalf! It is not there anywhere! Yes, if we go to negotiations – I sit down, you sit down, and we agree.”

Osifo challenged Ajaero to produce the ILO regulation document that said either of the labour unions could negotiate on behalf of the other.

“He should show me in the ILO Regulations where it says one party is going to negotiate without the other one being there or consulted. He should show me! He should show Nigerians!

“ILO doctrine is that when you have more affiliates, and you are going for one of their events, it is not correct that the most represented will go and negotiate on behalf of the other one when the unions have their own umbrella.

‘He doesn’t understand what JNC means’

“Let Ajaero send a document to you that proves that! It cannot be found anywhere! He talked about the JNC (Joint Public Sector Negotiating Council). I don’t truly think Ajaero has read the JNC constitution. I don’t truly think he knows what the JNC eans.

“Yes, you have a Masters in 1990. You cannot use a solution of yesterday to attack today’s problem. And that is why in industrial relations, you need to keep updating, retooling and relearning.

“First, the JNC means that when there are issues in the public sector, the JNC looks at it.”

According to Osifo, the meeting where the N70,000 transport allowance was agreed upon was not the Council’s meeting and does not represent a general agreement by members.

“But that meeting that took place was not the Council meeting. The Minister is not a member of the Council. Ajaero is not a member of the Council. The Council even has a quorum and the number of persons that must be seated to form a quorum.

“But at the end of the day, that meeting was not a JNC meeting. The members of JNC were not there!

“Again, if you see the release that was sent out by those three bodies, you will discover that after the last minimum wage, we got about 33 per cent increment, and how does that work? Because from N30,000, we got N70,000.

“What you are supposed to do is that JNC will have to sit down and apply consequential adjustments.

“You know what Ajaero used JNC to do? Ajaero sent JNC a questionnaire and asked them to apply N40,000 each to Nigerian workers. So they took N40,000, which is the difference between N30,00 and N70,000, and applied it across board.

“That is why the federal workers today are earning abysmally poor. But I attacked him! I went to his office and told him that ‘Ajaero, this is wrong! What you used JNC to do is fundamentally wrong!”