The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described 2024 as the worst year for workers in the country.

The NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, said this at the opening session of the 2024 Harmattan School in Abuja on Monday, December 2, 2024.

Ajaero, who lamented that 2024 was filled with harrowing hardship, said: “I welcome you a year that we have witnessed one of the greatest turbulence in our history as a movement, a period where we have been invaded, ransacked, and subjected to the highest level of threats, intimidation.

“A year that we have been charged with treasonable felony, financing cybercrime and other sundry crimes. A year where our liberties have been forcefully emasculated, and the year we were arrested and detained by the state.

“A year where we have had to negotiate a new minimum wage in the midst of the worst kind of harrowing hardship ever seen in our clime. A year where workers and other Nigerians go to bed fearing what the next day may bring, especially in the marketplaces.

NLC orders Abuja workers to begin strike over minimum wage

“It has truly been a year like no other year in our history, thus presented us with unknown challenges that defy human relations and logic.”

Ajaero enjoined workers participating in the harmattan school to actively engage in the training which according to him was aimed at preparing workers for the engagement and negotiation of the new social contract.

Also speaking at the event, the ILO Country Director, Vanessa Phala, urged trade unions in Nigeria to unite and engage the government to find solutions to some of the harrowing challenges workers were grappling with.

According to her, the ILO expects a new social contract based on rebuilding trust in institutions. It must be inclusive, and it must protect and ensure the participation of all those that are involved.

The Star