National Assembly workers threaten strike over minimum wage

The National Assembly workers under the umbrella of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) on Thursday threatened to shut down all activities in the parliament next week to protest the non-payment of the minimum wage arrears.

The workers, who met at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, decried the refusal of the National Assembly’s management to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on the condition of service signed by both parties.

In a statement signed by its National President, Mohammed Usman, and Secretary, Comrade Ikechukwu Alaride, PASAN said the National Assembly’s management had insisted that it would not implement any allowances including the Leave Grant already paid in the last two years except they obtain approval from the National Salaries and Wages Commission.

The statement read: “This position is absolutely in conflict with the functions of the National Assembly Commission, particularly Section 19 (1) of the Act establishing the Commission.

“The provisions of this Section expressly provide that the Commission shall among other things, make staff regulations relating generally to the conditions of service, including the power to fix salaries and allowances, of the staff of the National Assembly. Section 6(b) of the same Act also provides that ‘the Commission shall have the power to pay its staff such remuneration as are approved by the National Assembly.

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“In line with these provisions, the National Assembly approved the harmonized Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS) and Peculiar Allowances in 2010. And in 2018 the two Houses of the National Assembly also approved the Revised Conditions of Service 2018.

“As such, the main function of the National Salaries and Wages Commission is to advise the Federal Government on national incomes policy. Consequently, paragraph (b) of Section 3 of the Act mandates the National Salaries and Wages Commission to keep the Federal Government informed on a continuing basis of the movement of all forms of income and propose guidelines relating to profits, dividends and all incomes other than wages while paragraph (l) also mandates it to examine, streamline and recommend salary scales applicable to each post in the public service.

“Incidentally, for the purpose of ratifying a salary or wage approved by a statutory approving authority like both Houses of the National Assembly, the role of the Commission is to ratify such approval by making it official and keeping the records in its data bank, established under paragraph (i) of the same Section 3 of the National Salaries and Wages Commission Act.

“A situation where allowances approved by the National Assembly are termed ‘illegal’ is no doubt unfortunate. Indeed the decision to further stop the already implemented and existing Leave Grant is none more than an injustice to beneficiaries who are staff of the National Assembly Service.”

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