WORKERS DAY: ORGANIZED LABOR DEMANDS REVIEW OF RETIREMENT AGE
As over 50 trade unions on Monday converged on Abuja to celebrate this year’s Workers Day, organized labour wants governments in Nigeria to review the retirement age in the civil service to 65 years from the 60 years that obtains at present.
They also want the years of service before retirement to be extended to 40 from 35 which also obtains now.
The President of the Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero said equity, fairness and justice underpin the survival of societies and create resilience for nations in the midst of upheavals and turbulence, noting that Nigeria needs the presence of this mass to jump-start the process of development.
He called for better valuation of the Nigerian worker and commensurate reward for his contribution to national development.
On his part, the President of the TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo decried the state of the economy, which according to him is on autopilot, struggling to survive while those engaged to manage it have kept throwing filth and injecting toxins into it.
He described it as unfortunate, a situation in which the country is led by men and women who delight in enacting policies that are detrimental to the progress of the nation, including the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) currency redesign policy.
Past and present leaders of the NLC and TUC as well as those of other affiliate unions converged on the Eagle Square Abuja in commemoration of the 2023 May Day Celebration.
Those. who attended the event included the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello, Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen and the candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi.
