Union Opens National Assembly Gates

The Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) has opened the gates of the National Assembly, permitting lawmakers, staff, and visitors to enter the complex.

The gates were opened around 1 p.m on Tuesday, June 4, after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) announced the suspension of the strike for one week to facilitate additional negotiations with the Federal Government.

In a show of solidarity with the NLC and TUC’s strike for a new minimum wage, PASAN closed the gates on Monday.

The federal government’s delegation, spearheaded by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, met with organized labor leadership on Monday to continue negotiations aimed at resolving the impasse.

A pact was signed during the meeting between the unions and the federal government, with the government consenting to pay an amount exceeding the earlier proposed N60,000.00.

The NLC and TUC had requested a national minimum wage of N494,000.00 per month, but the government expressed concerns that such an amount would hamper its capacity to finance essential sectors of the economy, including Education, Defence, and Healthcare, among others.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared that it remains flexible in its ongoing negotiations with the Federal Government over the national minimum wage, asserting that it is not rigidly fixated on any particular figure.