There are indications that workers in some states in the country will
soon embark on demonstrations or strike action over unpaid salary
arrears in their respective states .
A trustee of the Nigeria
Union of Local Government Employees , Mr. Fatai Ibrahim , on Friday said
NULGE would engage in demonstrations , work to rule and even strike
action in states where the governors failed to remit to the local
governments their share of the expected last tranche of the Paris Club
refund .
Speaking in Ilorin , the Kwara State capital , during a
media briefing by the state branch of NULGE, Ibrahim added that the
union would engage governors of the states that fail to remit the funds
to the
local government , adding that where the engagements ,
negotiations and dialogue fail, the union would embark on strike action
to get the governors accede to the workers’ demands .
Also , the
state Chairman of NULGE, Alhaji Salihu Yusuf , has urged Governor
Abdulfatah Ahmed to ensure that the share of the local governments was
paid to them when the state gets the final tranche of the Paris Club
refund . He also stressed that the payment of some of the arrears being
owed them would greatly alleviate their plight.
He said , “The
Kwara State Governor has been saying that local governments will not
benefit from the expected Paris Club refund and that we should not be
expecting that arrears of salaries being owed workers in various local
governments across the state would be paid from the Paris Club refunds .
“ Other states are declaring certain percentages in favour of their local governments, why should Kwara State be an exception ?”
He
also urged the state House of Assembly to vote in favour of local
government autonomy to create genuine development at the grass roots,
adding that the governor should not wait until all LG workers were dead
due to poverty and hardship before he came to their aid .
He also
said the payment of junior secondary school teachers ’ salaries from
the local government allocation through the Joint Account Allocation
Committee was responsible for the about 10 months ’ arrears of salaries
in local governments, adding that the local governments should be freed
from that burden .
But the governor, while responding, said the
state had accessed 50 per cent of the refund , adding that arrangement
was on to end salary crisis in the 16 local government areas of the
state.
He said he had met with the local government chairmen with
the aim of identifying their problems and finding possible solutions to
them.
He said , “What we are doing is to find a permanent
solution to the problem . Giving them funds to clear the backlog of
salaries is not the solution , but to find the means of improving their
revenue base because of the continued drop in federal allocation . ”
Meanwhile
, the Nigeria Union of Teachers in Kwara State has given the state
government an ultimatum to address some lingering labour issues in the
state before December 31 , 2017 , or else the union would not guarantee
the resumption of teachers when schools resume on January 8 , 2018 .
The
teachers , in a communiqué after the meeting of the state executive
council , on Friday, stated that the labour issues bordered mainly on
the payment of salary arrears , the position of the state government not
to use the Paris Club refund to offset the salary arrears of its
members as earlier pledged , allegedly , at different forums and refusal
to implement promotion arrears with its attendant financial backing
from 2015 till date .
The communiqué , signed by the state NUT
Chairman , Alhaji Musa Abubakar , and the state NUT Secretary, Mr. Ola
Idris , partly read, “In view of these , the House resolved that these
issues must immediately be addressed before the end of 2017 , otherwise ,
the union cannot guarantee resumption of our members on January 8 ,
2018 .
But the state government has urged the teachers to embrace
dialogue , adding that strike was never a good way to address
industrial issues .
The Commissioner for Information , Mr.
Babatunde Ajeigbe , in an interview with journalists , stated that the
governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed , was deeply concerned and committed
to the welfare of the residents of the state , including teachers ,
saying the outstanding payment due to the drop in federal allocation.
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