Ekiti teachers commence strike over unpaid wages

As schools in Ekiti State are expected to resume for the 2014/2015 session today, teachers in the state under the aegis of Nigeria Union Teachers (NUT), has directed its members not to report for duty until their August and September salaries as well as the July deductions from their salaries are paid by the state government.

The NUT, which called the teachers out on strike on Tuesday, lamented what it said was Governor Kayode Fayemi’s alleged sidelining of the public schools’ teachers in Ekiti State in the payment of salaries.

Chairman of Ekiti State Wing of NUT, Samuel Akosile, who announced the development to newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, said “the government has no justification to ask its members to resume for duties when they are being owed two months salaries and other allowances, while others in other sectors, particularly, at the local government level have been paid up to September.”

Teachers in the state were supposed to resume for the 2014/2015 session on September 17, but their resumption was postponed due to the threat of the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

Akosile said teachers “had no option than to continue with the strike embarked upon by other civil servants in the state last Thursday over similar agitation.”

Civil servants in the state under the auspices of the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) had, last week, ordered the workers to commence an indefinite strike, and they had also lampooned the state government for allegedly treating the workers with levity on issues bordering on their welfare and general well-being.

The JNC chairman, Johnson Oladipupo, had also said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the other civil servants in Ministries, Departments and Agencies would also continue with the strike “because of government’s recalcitrant position on the payment of all outstanding allowances and salaries.” The Commissioner for Information, Mr Tayo Ekundayo, who responded to the workers’ position, pleaded for understanding, claiming that Fayemi’s government had been reacting promptly to payment of workers’ dues until the June 21 governorship election

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