Teachers Begin Indefinite Strike In Kaduna Over Planned Sack

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai

The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in Kaduna State has directed its members to commence an indefinite strike on Monday, Jan. 8, over the planned sack of over 21,000 primary school teachers in the state.

A statement by the union’s Assistant Secretary General, Adamu Anglo, in Kaduna on Sunday contained the notice of the strike dated Jan. 4, 2018.

It would be recalled that the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai planned to sack the teachers for allegedly failing the competency test organised by the state government in June 2017.

A two weeks ultimatum was earlier given to the state government to rescind its decision in the notice, but the government began to issue sack letters to the affected teachers after the festive periods which made the industrial action imminent.

The union said, “As a responsible union, we ventilated our grievances before the National Industrial Court, Kaduna, and the court on December 4, 2017, granted an interlocutory injunction, restraining the state government from disengaging any teacher pending the determination of the case.

“The court order was served to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, but surprisingly, he went on to order the distribution of letters of disengagement to the affected teachers, dated November 3rd, 2017.

“We, therefore, met on January 4th, 2018 and unanimously resolved to embark on indefinite strike action on Monday 8.”

The notice also stated other issues the union is having with the state government, such as compulsory retirement of secondary school teachers before their due date as against the 35 years of service or 60 years of age provided by civil service rules, non-payment of 2015 leave transport grant to 3,338 primary school teachers, as well as 2016 and 2017 leave transport grant to all public school teachers despite deductions at source.

The union is also asking for payment of salary arrears of more than 15,000 primary school teachers of one to 12 months from June 2015 to July 2016, stressing that the state government has failed to pay the salaries to some teachers, promote teachers and provide teaching and learning materials to schools among others.