The Nigerian Labour Congress (INC) and its affiliate, Trade Union Congress (TUC) have suspended the indefinite strike billed to start on Tuesday October 3, 2023.
The suspension was as a result of certain concessions the Federal Government acceded to the labour union.
The concessions were made after a meeting the NLC and TUC held with the federal government where an agreement was reached as follows:
The federal government granted a wage award of N35,000 to all federal government workers beginning from the month of September, a minimum wage committee to be set up within one month from the date of the agreement, federal government agreed to suspend collection of value added tax on diesel for six months beginning from October, 2023.
Others are that, federal government accepted to vote N100 billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria, provisions are also made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an auto gas conversion programme, while work is ongoing on the state-of-the-art CND stations nationwide. The federal government agrees to implement various tax incentive measures for private sector and the general public.
Against the crisis rocking the NURTW, the federal government agrees to handle labour matters in line with relevant international labour organization (ILO) conventions and Nigerian Labour Acts.
The federal agrees to N25,000 per month for three months starting from October 2023 to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners etc.
A memorandum of understanding where these concessions are documented was signed by the President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, TUC President, Engr. Festus Osifo, Secretary General, Nuhu A. Toro while the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong signed on behalf of the federal government.
