The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Monday night suspended the plan to embark on nationwide strike from Tuesday.
Minister of labour and employment Simon Lalong told reporters, “The NLC and TUC accept to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.”
The resolution followed over five hours of deliberations between the Federal Government and labour union leaders at the Chief of Staff Conference Room of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Labour leaders, including NLC president Joe Ajaero, and TUC president Festus Osifo, signed a memorandum of understanding with the government.
Part of the resolutions reached is that a minimum wage committee would be inaugurated within one month from the date of the agreement.
Lalong said the government also agreed to use N100 billion for the provision of high-capacity compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for mass transit in Nigeria.
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He noted that provisions were also being made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kickstart an auto gas conversion programme, while work was ongoing on the state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide.
“The rollout aims to commence by November with pilots across 10 campuses nationwide,” the minister noted.
He said the government plans to implement various tax incentive measures for the private sector and the general public.
The meeting, Lalong added, upheld its earlier approval of a wage award of N35,000 only to all federal workers beginning in September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.
However, the meeting urged state governments through the National Economic Council and Nigerian Governors’ Forum to implement wage awards for their workers.
“Similar consideration should also be given to local governments and private sector workers,” the memorandum read.
