Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has thrown its full weight behind the ongoing indefinite strike by workers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
Gatekeepers News reports that NLC described the industrial action as justified and unavoidable following what it called persistent abuse of workers’ rights.
In a statement issued on Friday and signed by NLC President, Joe Ajaero, the labour centre said it was standing “in very strong solidarity” with the affected workers operating under the Joint Unions Action Congress.
According to the union, the strike was a response to what it described as sustained administrative misconduct and denial of lawful entitlements by the FCTA leadership.
Ajaero said engagements with leaders of JUAC revealed what he termed a calculated attack on workers in the nation’s capital, accusing the FCTA of practices that amount to exploitation and oppression of labour.
He described the strike as “a necessary and heroic response to a vicious cocktail of neoliberal attacks, gross administrative impunity, and a systematic violation of the fundamental rights of workers by the FCTA management and its political leadership”.
The NLC president alleged that workers had been subjected to wage abuse, stressing that the failure to pay five months’ wage awards and promotion arrears was not an oversight but a deliberate refusal to honour workers’ earnings.
“The case of Wage abuse was well established. The illegal withholding of five months’ wage award and promotion arrears is not an administrative lapse but a brazen denial of workers’ legitimate earnings, a direct attack on their livelihoods and a violation of the constitutional guarantee of remuneration,” the statement said.
The labour union further accused the FCTA of failing to remit pension contributions and National Housing Fund deductions since May 2025, warning that such actions threaten the future of both serving and retired workers.
“The non-remittance of pension contributions since May 2025 and National Housing Fund deductions is an act of economic sabotage against both active and retired workers, condemning them to a destitute old age. This is capital accumulation by dispossession, plain and simple. It is unacceptable,” Ajaero stated.
He also raised concerns over alleged intimidation of staff, including restrictions on phone use and the detention of workers, describing such actions as unlawful and aimed at suppressing dissent. According to him,
“The intimidation of staff, including bans on phone usage and incarceration of workers, is fascistic tactic designed to cripple workers’ solidarity and silence dissent, in utter contempt of constitutional rights and international labour conventions.”
As the dispute deepens, the NLC announced an escalation of the action by directing all its affiliate unions within FCT to join the strike in solidarity with FCTA workers. Ajaero warned that the labour movement’s tolerance had run out and that failure to address the issues would lead to wider industrial action.
He ended the statement with a message of support to the striking workers, saying, “To the workers of the FCTA, NLC says: Your struggle is our struggle. Your victory will be a victory for every exploited worker in Nigeria.”
