The proposed strike slated for today by the Nigeria Labour Congress has been suspended following a consensus reached during the emergency meeting with the Federal Government which began Sunday night.
The suspension of the protest was announced by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and contained in a communiqué signed by all the parties involved in the meeting which ended in the early hours of Monday.
After exhaustive deliberations on the issues raised by the labour centres during the meeting, they agreed to suspend the application of the cost-reflective electricity tariff adjustments for two weeks.
Among the agreements reached after several hours of talks which ended in the wee hours of Monday, were palliative measures to cushion effects of the deregulation of the downstream sector, time line for revamping of refineries, suspension of newly introduced reflective cost regime in the electricity tariff.
In terms of the electricity tariff, Mr Ngige stated the parties agreed to set up a Technical Committee comprising Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government as well as the NLC and TUC, which will work for a duration of two weeks from today.
He said the responsibility of the committee is to examine the justifications for the new policy in view of the need for the validation of the basis for the new cost-reflective tariff as a result of conflicting information from the field.
Conversely, both the president of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, and that of the TUC, Quadri Olaleye confirmed the content of the communique, after the meeting.
Mr Wabba stated that the technical committee will work out a lasting solution in addressing the electricity tariff including the issue of metering. His words: “Other issues are very clear, palliatives that needed to be extended our members and Nigerians that will cushion the effect of these policies. So it is, therefore, the decision of organized labour as represented here to suspend the action and we are going to convey our CWC to present it to them”.
InlandTown! 2020