The Nigeria Labour Congress, Abia State chapter has shelved its proposed indefinite strike earlier scheduled to kick off on Monday.
This followed a two-day meeting between the Abia State government, organized labour and members of the joint negotiation council.
According to a communique issued at the end of the meeting, the Abia State government and the organized labour arrived at the payment of N15,000 wage award to civil servants for three months, starting from the end of July 2024.
The communique was signed by Calab Ajagba, the Chief of Staff to Governor Alex Otti and two others on behalf of the Abia State government, while Okoro Ogbonnaya, NLC Chairman, and Ihechi Enogwe, TUC Chairman and others signed for the labour.
While the labour leaders had claimed that Abia workers are only being paid N20,100 minimum wage, Abia state government said that available records before it showed that the N30,000 was actually being paid to the civil servants.
The State government used the opportunity of the dialogue to explain the reasons for cancelling the command promotions given to civil servants by the past administration of Okezie Ikpeazu, saying that the cancellation was carried out to sanitize the service.
However, it was agreed by the two parties that all civil servants who are due for promotion would soon commence.
The government also explained that it cannot offset at once, the N16.5bn which the previous administration owed workers in institutions and parastatals in the state but promised to approach the state House of Assembly for a virement to pay the debt in installment.
The organized labour had last week issued a final ultimatum to the state government over alleged non-payment of N30,000 minimum wage and N35,000 palliative award by the state government.
The organized Labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress TUC, threatened to commence an indefinite strike if their demands were not met within the one week ultimatum.
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