The Niger State Government and the state chapter of
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have resolved their dispute leading to the
immediate suspension of the strike embarked upon by workers.
The strike, which was declared last Tuesday was
over the non-implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage to all category of
workers in the state.
The state government had commenced the payment of
the new wage in January but only to workers on Salary grade levels 1 to 6.
A statement issued by the NLC at the weekend which
was made available to journalists said the government had agreed to pay the new
wage to all workers effective form this month.
The government also agreed to pay the arrears of
two months’ salary to state workers while local government workers will be paid
three months’ arrears from this month.
The statement signed by Chairman of state chapter
of the NLC, Yahaya Garba, and his counterpart in Trade Union Congress (TUC), Tanimu
Yunusa, also stated that the government agreed to immediately commence refund
of 7.5 percent money deducted from workers’ salaries over the years.
According to
the statement, “The government has agreed
to increase its contribution from 10.5 percent to 13 percent to address the 7.5
percent pension arrears.
The labour leaders
also said in the statement that
government has agreed to set aside 20 percent of its Internally Generated
Revenue (IGR) for the payment of pension liabilities to retirees
They expressed gratitude to the people of the
state, workers and other stakeholders for their show of solidarity during the
strike, while calling on workers to return to work immediately without fear of
molestation.
There has been no reaction or statement from the
government on the issue.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had while the
strike lasted asked the government to pay the workers the " legally approved minimum wage.
Tanko Beji in a statement had stated that the government
was subjecting the people of the state to more hardship with the strike.
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