By our Reporter
The Striking Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria,(JUSUN) and the parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria,(PASAN) has been asked by the Federal Government to call off the over-two-month-Old strike or face sanctions.
This was revealed by Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment in a statement on Tuesday threatening that the government might be forced to invoke “sections of the trade Dispute Acts” if the strike persisted longer.
The warning by the Government will introduce a” no-work-no-pay” to break adamant striking workers.
According to Ngige: “The ministry will not be happy to be pushed into invoking sections of the Trade Disputes Acts capable of eroding all the gains made so far in the negotiations since May 6, 2021,” the statement signed by the ministry of Labour and Employment’s Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Charles Akpan, on Tuesday.
It would be recalled that members of the two unions have been on strike for over two months in agitation for the finance independence of various state judiciaries and house of Assembly.
Also,JUSUN members started their strike on April 6, and courts at both the state and federal levels have been shut across the country.
Ngige who heads the negotiation team regarding the industrial crises urged members of the two unions to immediately returns to work in honour fo the May 20,2021 memorandum of Actions (MOA),signed by all parties.
Labour minister decried the situation where the courts and the state Houses of Assembly were still shut down across the federation “for no cogent reasons of non-adherence to the provisions of the May 20 Memorandum of Action which has 45 days implementation window.”
“The Federal Government has sadly noted that the MOA between all the stakeholders involved in the JUSUN/ PASAN strike, mainly JUSUN/PASAN, governors’ forum and the Presidential Implementation Committee is yet to take effect because of non-compliance by parties.