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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened to declare industrial action in states treating welfare of its members with levity, stressing that the union is concerned about the welfare of its members.
NUT also said it has intensified the legal battle to stop secondary school teachers from joining the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS).
National President of NUT, Dr. Nasir Idris, spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday, during a National Press Conference on the move by ASUSS to pull teachers of secondary schools away from NUT.
Idris, who was represented the Deputy National President of the union, Kelvin Nwankwo, noted that ASUSS is a union that cannot be registered by the Registrar of Trade Union, and urged secondary school teachers to keep faith with NUT.
He explained that the Supreme Court did not give ruling that teachers in secondary school should join ASUSS, noting that the matter bordering on membership of the new body, ASUSS, was not before the apex court.
Idris said: “The extant provisions of the third schedule Part A No. 26 of the Trade Unions Act CAP. T.14 LFN 2004 which provides: Nigeria Union of Teachers Shall exercise jurisdiction over “Teachers employed in educational institutions of all types, but excluding Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and other tertiary institutions.” As severally established by the Registrar of Trade Unions, that Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, is the body that is statutorily registered to organise teachers n primary and secondary schools in Nigeria.
“With this provisions or the Trade Union Act, we call on all teachers of secondary schools in Nigeria to disregard the baseless claim by ASUSS as no such matter of membership of secondary school teachers was before the Supreme Court and the status of NUT in unionizing teachers of primary and secondary schools remains sacrosanct and backed by the jurisdictional scope of the trade unions as contained in the Trade Union Act CAP T. 14 LFN 2004.”
He urged teachers across the country to exercise patience with the federal government on the move to implement the new retirement age of 65 years for teachers, adding that when the process was completed that teachers would enjoy.
He said: “We all know the process of law that the bill is an Executive bill. Though the President has approved, it is still in process. The National Assembly is working and we are following up and we are optimistic that it will be passed as a bill and be gazetted.
“It is NUT that asked for this welfare package. We have hard the public hearing because we went to the red Chambers, but the President could not accent to it during the Eighth Assembly. We kept pressing and it was returned as an executive bill. We urge our members to be patient, very soon it will be passed and we start enjoying it”.
Idris further dislcosed that the union would soon commence action against states that have refused to implement the new minimum wage and they are owing their teachers, adding that the move has started with Abia State.
He said: “NUT is doing a lot. Recently, the national body declared indefinite strike in Abia State to press the demand for teachers that have not been paid to be paid. We have started with Abia. The strike is entering the fifth week. We are going to other states to fight the course of our members”.
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Ends.
[2/9, 4:44 PM] A.J Daniels: Unpaid salaries : Angry Workers Shut down ISOPADEC secretariat
…denies MD access to
From George Onyejiuwa Imo Owerri
Angry staff of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC) on Tuesday locked up up the secretariat over unpaid salaries.
This is even as the workers prevented the Managing Director of the Commission ,Chief Charles Orie into the premises of the secretariat.
Apart from the unpaid salaries, the angry workers also protested slash in their salaries and vowed to ground the secretariat until the situation is remedied.
The workers who are clutching placards with various inscriptions to underline their demands, the workers vowed not to return to work or allow anyone access into the secretariat unit the government attended their welfares.
ISOPADEC union chairman, Chinedu Awuzie, disclosed that their April and May, 2020 salaries was yet to be paid.
He said that the government and the corporation’s management had failed to listen to their demands.
According to the Union Chairman, ” government unlawfully took over the payment of our salaries, slashing same to 20% which has subjected the oil workers to hardship, suffering and death.
“The law that established ISOPADEC did not make them part of Imo Civil Service, to the effect that ISOPADEC workers are not pensionable, and therefore the government’s decision to pay them as such is questionable.”
Responding, the MD, Charles Orie, said the problems enumerated by the workers predated his appointment as as the corporation’s boss.
He assured that their grievances would be addressed.
Orie asked the workers to return to work, and be law abiding as they press home their demands, saying that the governor, Hope Uzodinma, would make them smile.
