FOLLOWING a meeting with the Federal Government, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has suspended its industrial action for two weeks.
The electricity sector workers had commenced the strike earlier on Wednesday.
General Secretary of the association Joe Ajaero announced the suspension of the strike while addressing journalists Wednesday evening.
Ajaero said the workers will resume the industrial action if their demands are not met after two weeks.
“We have been asked to suspend our action and when you suspend an action, you can recall it any moment. We want to believe that the government will handle this matters in good faith as some of them have lingered to a very dangerous point.
“We will not wait again for one year or six months or two years to renew our action if the content of what we agreed today are not implemented.
“So we will take a pause now, wait for about two weeks as they said. Two weeks is not a century and we’ll come back to review what has happened,” he said.
The workers had withdrawn their services nationwide over certain issues, including promotion and staff welfare.
The strike led to blackout across the country.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had called for a conciliation meeting with the aggrieved employees, which lasted for hours before ending with the suspension of the strike.
Prior to the strike action, the workers held a protest on Tuesday at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) headquarters.
Their demands include payment of entitlements owed former staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
Though the TCN pleaded for the cancellation of the strike, the workers remained adamant and went ahead to withdraw services before eventually suspending the industrial action later on Wednesday.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.