National Assembly workers from the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria have opened the Assembly gates to allow legislators, staff, and guests to enter. The gates were opened on Tuesday afternoon, 4 June 2024, after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) announced their strike had been suspended for one week to allow additional negotiations with the Federal Government. PASAN sealed the gates on Monday, 3 June 2024, in solidarity with the NLC and TUC, which launched the strike to demand a new minimum wage for the country’s workers.

On Monday, 3 June 2024, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, led the Federal Government’s team to meet with the leadership of organized Labour to continue negotiating how to end the impasse. During the discussion, the unions and the Federal Government reached an agreement in which the Government agreed to pay more than the N60,000.00 minimum wage it had previously given.

The NLC and TUC had called for a monthly National Minimum Wage of N494,000.00. However, the Government voiced concern that this amount would limit its ability to fund important economic areas like education, defence, and healthcare.

The strike, which began on Monday, 3 June 2024, was organized to protest the Federal Government’s inability to adopt a new minimum wage by May 31, 2024, and its failure to reverse the increase in electricity tariffs. According to PUNCH, during a six-hour meeting with the leadership of organised labour in Abuja on Monday night, the Federal Government expressed President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to increase the N60,000 minimum salary.

The document read, “The President of Nigeria, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is committed to establishing a National Minimum Wage higher than N60,000; and the Tripartite Committee will convene daily for the next week to finalise an agreeable National Minimum Wage.”

Organised labour also agreed to “immediately hold meetings of its organs to consider this new offer, and no worker would face victimisation as a consequence of participating in the industrial action.” Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, and Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, signed these resolutions on behalf of the Federal Government.

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