Management of the National Assembly,has said that positive efforts are being made to address all issues raised by the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria(PASAN).
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Mohammed Sani-Omolori said this through a seven page letter to PASAN with reference number NASS/CNA/149/Vol.6/75 dated December 3
PASAN had earlier last week threatened to picket the National Assembly from Tuesday, Dec. 4 over non payment of outstanding salaries and allowances.
The clerk , in the letter,expressed concern that despite efforts by the management to address issues raised by the union, it had planned to embark on strike.
He said, on payment of 28 per cent increase in CONLESS as part of the request by the union, a committee made up of management and PASAN had been set up to study, review and advise on the way forward.
According to him the payment was captured in 2018 budget, but the level of implementation in terms of release of funds has made it impossible to pay additional 28 per cent adding to “This situation has been well discussed, and I am aware that PASAN officials have investigated and verified this fact from the Federal Ministry of Finance”.
On the non-release of some promotion letters, upgrading, conversion and other establishment matters, he said of the 589 letters of promotion, conversion and upgrading, 562 had been released to the respective beneficiaries.
He said in the letter that; “The 27 pending ones have issues of promotion into non-existent vacancies, conversion of staff to other cadres in breach of extant guidelines approved by National Assembly Service Commission (NASC).
“Also, there are wrong effective dates of promotion and/or conversion, suspicious career progression records and questions concerning consultancy cadre, ” he said.
The clerk expressed concern that PASAN did not exhaust all options before threatening to embark on strike adding “your determination to embark on industrial action by all means without exhausting the options available to you is uncalled for.
“Picketing and strike should be the last resort instead of the first in industrial relations.”
He therefore requested PASAN to immediately call off the proposed picketing and strike action and continue to engage management of the National Assembly on all issues raised in their letter of November 29 to the management.
