…as FG grants N35,000 wage award to workers, votes N100bn for provision of CNG buses
OSAS EMMANUEL
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has suspended the proposed nationwide indefinite strike action for 30 days.
This decision was announced at the end of the meeting between the Federal Government and the organised labour including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Trade Union Congress (TUC), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Reading the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), jointly signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, TUC President, Festus Osifo, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, said the meeting was called to by the Federal Government to avert the strike.
He said that following extensive deliberations and agreements reached, the NLC and TUC accepted to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, October 3, 2023.
“Consequently, a meeting was called by the Federal Government to avert the strike and after much discussion, the following agreements were reached:
“The Federal Government grants a wage award of N35,000 (thirty-five thousand Naira) only to all Federal Government workers beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.
“A minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement.
“Federal Government suspends collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Diesel for six months beginning from October, 2023.
“Federal Government accepts to vote N100 billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria. Provisions are also being made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an auto gas conversion programme, whilst work is ongoing on state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide. The rollout aims to commence by November with pilots across 10 campuses nationwide.
“The Federal Government plans to implement various tax incentive measures for private sector and the general public.
“On the leadership crises rocking the NURTW and the purported proscription of RTEAN, the Federal Government commits to handling Labour matters in line with relevant ILO Conventions and Nigerian Labour Acts. A resolution of the ongoing impasse is expected by or before October 13.
“The issue of outstanding Salaries and Wages of Tertiary Education workers in Federal-owned educational institutions is being referred to Ministry of Labour and Employment for further engagement.
“The Federal Government commits to pay N25,000 per month for three months starting from October, 2023 to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners.
“The Federal Government will increase its initiatives on subsidised distribution of fertilisers to farmers across the country.
“The Federal Government should urge State Government through the National Economic Council and Governors Forum to implement wage award for their workers. Similar consideration should also be given to local government and private sector workers.
“The Federal Government commits to the provision of funds as announced by the President on the 1st of August broadcast to the Nation for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises. The MSMEs beneficiaries should commit to the principle of decent jobs.
“A joint visitation will be made to the refineries to ascertain their rehabilitation status.
“All parties commit to henceforth abide by the dictates of Social dialogue in all our future engagements.
“The NLC and TUC accept to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.
“This Memorandum shall be filed with the relevant Court of competent jurisdiction within one (1) week as consent judgment by the Federal Government.”
In his reaction, the NLC President said “after 30 days if these issues are not implemented, we’ll revisit all the issues”.
On his part, the TUC President said “We have a sign agreement. We believe that the government will act in utmost good faith. We signed this agreement with the belief that every single item in this agreement are implementable.
“Every single item in this agreement, we are extremely serious about them. And we wish to also reiterate that we are expecting 100% implementation and not a 99% in any way.
“So, we believe that when this is implemented, and also when it’s cascaded down because there’s a portion in the agreement that talks about what will be done or or the encouragement that will be given to the to people working in the private sector and also to people that are working in the state as well as local government. So we believe that when this is cascaded down, it will alleviate the pain that Nigerians are facing at the moment,” Osifo said.
