SaharaReporters on Sunday reported how the workers in a statement released through the Secretary-General of PASAN, Hammed Awofiba, declared an indefinite strike to demand full implementation of the revised conditions of service (2018).
Nigerian legislative workers under the umbrella of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), comprising staff members of the National Assembly and National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) on Monday morning besieged the main gate of the National Assembly Complex in protest against an unpaid backlog of entitlements, including the new minimum wage.
SaharaReporters on Sunday reported how the workers in a statement released through the Secretary-General of PASAN, Hammed Awofiba, declared an indefinite strike to demand full implementation of the revised conditions of service (2018).
The workers who accused the National Assembly management of failing to fully implement a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with them on the revised condition of service and the training and re-training of staff, had warned that the indefinite strike would kick off by midnight on Sunday.
Among the workers’ demands includes payment of arrears of Minimum wage, leave grant and other allowances.
They blocked the NASS main gate with their coastal bus and human shield and vowed that the strike would be total and indefinite, as they directed all their members to stay at home from Tuesday in compliance with the declared strike.
The workers had in the statement on Sunday lamented the NASS management’s failure to implement the subsisting MoU jointly signed by NASC and NASS management and PASAN on April 13, 2021.
PASAN noted that it issued a communiqué on March 28 this year demanding full implementation of the subsisting MoU and the Revised Conditions of Service and also notified the NASS management of 21 days, 14 days and 7 days service of notice for industrial action if it fails to meet their demands by May 31.
PASAN stated that the MoU covered 24 months’ arrears of minimum wage/consequential adjustment which NASS management paid for 16 months with an eight months backlog.
Also identified by the workers is the non-implementation of the Conditions of Service covered in the MoU the management signed with the workers in April 2021.
A statement on Sunday, released through the Secretary-General of PASAN, Awofiba and titled ‘PASAN Declares Indefinite Strike to Demand Full Implementation of the Revised Conditions of Service (2018),’ had said, “The Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, National Assembly Service Commission and National Assembly (chapters), at its joint congress meeting of 2nd June, 2022, resolved to embark on an indefinite strike over the failure of the National Assembly management to implement the subsisting MoU jointly signed by NASC and NASS management and PASAN on the 13th of April, 2021.”