The Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Sunday, presented to the representatives of President Bola Tinubu, a list of demands to be met following the removal of petroleum subsidy.
Rising from the session at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday night, both parties agreed to meet again on Tuesday, allowing the President time to consider the demands.
Spokesman on the President’s side, Dele Alake, told journalists after the meeting that the session was constructive.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was not represented at the meeting.
He affirmed that the demands put forward by the union are not impracticable, but added that the president needs time to consider them.
While noting that the meeting would reconvene on Tuesday, Alake said government would look into the issue of minimum wage as the removal of subsidy has the immediate consequence of reducing the purchasing power of the people.
He announced that a tripartite committee would be set up to study all dynamics relating to the subsidy, assuring that by Tuesday, government would have something concrete to report.
Alake said: “Well, as you all know, we had this reconvened meeting today as we promised you few days ago when we had the initial meeting with the Labour movement.
“We said we were going to reconvene today to keep the engagement on in order to diffuse the tension in the land as a result of the withdrawal of subsidy, which is a reality.
“Now, we are very happy to announced to Nigerians that this engagement has been very productive.
“The TUC that attended today’s meeting presented a list of demands and those demands we have studied and we are going to present to Mr President, for his consideration.
“But those demands we can announce to Nigerians that a lot of the items on the list, are not impracticable. What we need to do is to study the numbers very well.
Then, we have asked the TUC also to give us a leeway to consult very exhaustively and reconvene on Tuesday to actually look at the numbers, viability, practicability of all the items that have been presented to us.
