The Federal Government and Organised Labour have reached agreement to shelve the planned nationwide strike after the closed door meeting both parties had on Sunday, October 1, 2023.
This is in accordance with the resolutions from the meeting between Organised Labour and the Federal government, noting that “the issues in dispute can only be resolved when workers are at work and not when they are on strike.
According to the press statement issued by Mallam Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, after the 4 hour meeting, the “NLC and TUC will consider the offers by the Federal Government with a view to suspending the planned strike to allow for further consultations on the implementation of the resolutions above.”
As part of the resolutions from the meeting the Federal Government has also announced that all treasury paid workers should also get N35,000 provisional wage increment for the next six months.
In addition, Value added Tax on diesel will be waived for the next 6 months while the Federal Government will fast-tract provision of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to ease public transportation difficulties associated with the removal of the PMS subsidy.
The Federal Government will also provide funds for micro and small-scale enterprises.
Lastly, the Federal Government will commence payment of N75,000 to 15 million households at N25,000 per month, for a three-month period from October-December 2023.
“I am happy to say that after four hours, we have reached certain agreements that are for the benefit of the Nigerian worker,” Gbajabiamila said.“Agreements on wage bills, agreements on committees on salary increments, CNG buses, on several other things, I believe, both TUC Labour and government side.
“Hopefully, we expect that labour will call a meeting of their various branches and executive tomorrow to present the agreements that have been reached, and we pray and we believe and we hope that the strike will be called off on Tuesday.