Nigeria Newspapers Online

The primary school teachers of the Local Education Authority (LEA) and the area council workers under the joint unions, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in the FCT have suspended their strike over non-implementation of the N70,000 new minimum wage by the six area council chairmen.

President of NULGE in the FCT, Comrade Abdullahi Ibrahim Kabi, announced the strike suspension during a joint press briefing after addressing executives of both unions at Teachers House in Gwagwalada, Abuja, on Friday.

He said the decision followed the intervention of the FCT Minister, Nyemson Wike, and the state minister, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud, as well as some top management members of the FCT administration.

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He said the suspension was premised on resolutions reached between the joint unions after exhaustive deliberations.

According to him, among the resolutions reached was the bridging of the communication gap between the joint unions and the six area council chairmen where a monthly consultative meeting would hold on the last Thursday of every month between the council chairmen and the joints unions to discuss the challenges of the workers in order strengthen the relationship between the two bodies and maintain industrial harmony.

He also said that a resolution was reached that the new minimum wage for all staff of the area councils, including primary school teachers, would be implemented in February 2025, unfailingly.

He said the joint unions had also resolved with the six area council chairmen and the FCT administration that 50 percent of the 10 percent of the FCT Internal Revenue Service (IRS) accruable to the area councils would be deducted for payment of the new national minimum wage arrears commencing from March, 2025.

“And a tripartite committee comprising the representatives of the area council chairmen, that of the two unions, which is to be chaired by minister of state for FCT Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud will be constituted to immediately meet with the FCT minister Nyemson Wike for the actualization of his commitment to take on the implementation of the 40 percent peculiar allowance and 25 percent/35 salary increase of primary school teachers and the area council staff as promised,” the joint unions said.

Kabi added that the unions also resolved with the council chairmen that all the pending entitlements of the area councils staff as contained in the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated October 23, 2024, between the FCT, ALGON and NULGE be implemented accordingly.

He also said that the joint unions had demanded that payment of primary school teachers’ promotion and annual increment arrears in the various area councils should be implemented according to the agreed template of March 18, 2022.

“And it was given to the above commitments that the joint unions of the FCT NUT and NULGE hereby suspends its ongoing strike action across the six councils of the FCT with immediate effect,” the joint unions said.

The unions, however, warned that failure by the six area council chairmen to abide by the aforementioned resolutions would leave them with no option but to resume the suspended strike again.

Recall that both primary school teachers and staff of the six area councils of the FCT had on Thursday, January 13, 2025, resumed its strike action over non-implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage by the council chairmen after an earlier agreement signed by both parties.