Three Labour Unions Disown JNPSNC Statement, Reject ₦70,000 Transport Intervention

Three registered trade unions have dissociated themselves from a press release issued in the name of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) on October 30, 2026, saying they were neither consulted nor invited to any meeting where the issues contained in the statement were discussed.

The unions are the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government-Owned Companies (SSASCGOC), the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), and the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP).

In a jointly signed statement issued on Sunday, November 1, 2026, by SSASCGOC President Comrade Kayode Alakija, SSAUTHRIAI President Comrade Dr John Alli and NUAHP President Comrade Dr Kamal Ibrahim, the unions said they did not participate in the preparation of the statement, endorse its contents or authorise anyone to speak on their behalf.

The unions said the Vice Chairman of the JNPSNC, representing the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), was also not consulted, adding that if the council’s own vice chairman and a major constituent union could be ignored, the credibility of the process was seriously compromised.

They said it was indefensible to recognise their members as public servants when imposing obligations on them, yet exclude their unions from decisions affecting their salaries, welfare and conditions of service.

The unions aligned themselves with the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) in rejecting the ₦70,000 transport intervention as grossly inadequate against the prevailing economic hardship and escalating cost of living, insisting that Nigerian workers deserved justice rather than token gestures.

On the consequential adjustment arising from the previous minimum wage implementation, the unions said the JNPSNC negotiated a flat ₦40,000 addition across the board rather than applying the 133 per cent adjustment to the lowest-paid worker and cascading it appropriately across the salary structure, which undermined salary differentials and disadvantaged workers.

They insisted that the JNPSNC is a public service negotiating platform and not a third national labour centre alongside the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), warning that any attempt to usurp the representative responsibilities of the recognised labour centres would be resisted.

The unions demanded formal acknowledgement of their disassociation from the unauthorised statement, an end to presenting it as the collective position of all public service trade unions, respect for the TUC’s rejection of the intervention, recognition and appropriate representation in relevant negotiating structures, and an end to issuing statements without consultation and express authorisation.

“No consultation, no consensus. No mandate, no representation. No inclusion, no legitimacy,” the statement read.