The National Assembly workers under the aegis of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), have suspended their week-long strike.
They had embarked on a strike over non-payment of outstanding National Minimum Wage and implementation of Revised Conditions of Service (2018).
The striking workers without any opposition bowed to pressure from the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan to sheath the sword.
Addressing the workers during a Congress in Abuja on Tuesday, the National President of PASAN, Muhammed Usman alleged that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, held their letter from the Salary and Wages Commission.
He said that; “the President of the Senate after meeting with the officials of PASAN, ordered the withdrawal of a court case by the management and urged it to pay all allowances including arrears.
“We also told them that the basis of this meeting is to return those allowances withdrawn. And I am going to quote what the Senate leader said; “were you paying this before you stopped ?” The Clerk said ‘yes, because it is illegal.
“And the Senate Leader said “illegal? Then Continue with the illegality because you cannot give me sweet and take it from my mouth. Return the illegality, pay and we will defend you because it is not stealing money instead you are paying your staff money and that was sorted out.
“Then we came to the issue of these allowances that were stopped. They have arrears, cumulative arrears. We insisted that the cumulative arrears be paid from the time they stopped. But when the Senate president intervened, the same letter from Salary and Wages Commission, which had been sent to the SGF for approval, it will interest you to know that letter got to the SGF on the 21st of November 2021, the same SGF sat on that and said he has not seen that letter,” Usman said.
The Chairman of PASAN National Assembly, Sunday Sabiyi said that “the industrial action was based on the outcome of the meeting held at the instance of the President of the Senate.”
The National Assembly Commission Chairman, Ahmed Amshi affirmed that “the two major issues in contention by PASAN were Arrears of minimum wage, the eight months arrears due to be paid to the staff was agreed to be paid on monthly basis: payment to be completed is as follows: SGL 03 to SGL 14 to be completed by December, 2022; SGL 15 to SGL 17, to be completed by March, 2023.”
“Full implementation of the Revised Conditions of Service. There is no approval yet from the Salaries, Income and Wages Commission for the payment of allowances contained in the Conditions of Service. The Management had started payment of some of the allowances but had to stop due to series of letters of advice from the Salaries and Wages Commission indicating that any payment of such allowances, without approval from the Presidential steering committee on allowances payable to public servants is an infraction to extant rules and regulations. That the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had done its part by transmitting the request of NASS to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
“That the Chairman NASC and the Management of NASS met with the SGF who clearly stated that only the Presidential steering committee has the Authority to approve the payment of such allowances.”
However PASAN alleged that it appeared that the Management of NASS was not concerned about the welfare of the Staff of the Service as this issue had lingered for long without any solutions, hence the reason for the Industrial Action.
In its intervention, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, sympathised with the members of PASAN for the long delay in the full implementation of the Revised Conditions of Service.
He said that “the National Assembly is the pivot of Democracy in Nigeria and remains central to the Democratic Governance, therefore, any attempt to disrupt its functions could be viewed as an attempt to cause embarrassment to the entire Nation in the eyes of the whole world.”
“Though the NASS is an independent Arm of Government and on the First Line Charge in terms of its finances, the fiscal responsibility to fix the salaries and allowances for staff of the Public Service rests on the Agencies established by law to do so.”
He directed that the ongoing payment of the arrears of the minimum wage to continue as agreed without any default or payment derailing.
The Senate President said; “The payment of the allowances that started but stopped must be continued with effect from the receipt of June 2022 fund allocation to NASS. These allowances are: Hazard Allowance and Leave Allowance.
“The Management of NASS and PASAN should agree on modalities of payment of backlog of Hazard Allowance in such a manner that the routine operations of NASS are not hampered.”
PASAN leadership assured the leadership of the Senate that this would be communicated to PASAN Congress and would be complied with in the spirit of Labour Relations.
Mercy Chukwudibere
