The House of Representatives has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to transmit the Tripartite Agreement on National Minimum Wage to the National Assembly for legislation to avert industrial disharmony.

The call was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion of Urgent National Importance by Rep. Sani Zoro (APC-Jigawa) on Wednesday at the plenary.

The house also urged the Federal Government to implement the agreement mutually reached with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to check the union’s incessant strikes.

Moving the motion earlier, Zoro said it was important to avoid paralysing the nation’s socioeconomic and political activities and its attendant cost.

Zoro expressed concern over the ongoing strike by members of ASUU and noted that the action had paralysed academic activities in public universities in Nigeria.

He expressed worry over the reluctance of the Presidency to transmit the Tripartite Agreement on National Minimum Wage to the National Assembly for legislation.

The legislator said that the threats of industrial action by organised labour in the face of the stalemate caused by the failure to facilitate the due process needed for appropriate resolution to the dispute needed to be addressed.

He recalled that members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria Assembly on Tuesday picketed both chambers of National Assembly to draw attention to their grievances.

He said that the National Assembly had a tradition of settling labour issues and urged members to support the motion.

The house resolved that a joint ad-hoc Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives be constituted to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the protest by staff of the National Assembly.
The lower chamber mandated the committee to make appropriate recommendations to the two legislative chambers for appropriate action. (NAN)