The strike embarked upon by primary school teachers and other area council staff across area councils of the FCT has entered the second week, as they are insisting on implementation of the N70,000 new minimum wage.
The Abuja Inquirer had reported that employees across the six area councils, including primary school teachers, under the local education authority, Thursday, resumed their suspended strike over the failure of council chairmen to implement the N70,000 new minimum wage.
The joint union of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, had on Wednesday, February 12, directed their members across the six area councils to resume the suspended industrial action.
Chairman of the FCT NUT wing, Comrade Mohammed Shafas, who announced this at a press briefing, said the joint unions decided to resume the suspended strike after exhausting all internal diplomatic mechanisms which did not yield any positive result.
He added that the six council chairmen had also failed to respond to other outstanding demands of its members, such as 40 percent peculiar allowance, 25 and 35 percent salary increments and 35 percent wage award.
Shafa threatened that the industrial action will continue until the area council chairmen commence implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage for both primary school teachers and staff of the six area councils.
He decried the situation where all civil servants in the FCT have started receiving the N70,000 new minimum wage, yet the area council chairmen have not deemed it fit to implement the increment at the council level despite the December 9th, 2024 agreement.
“The joint union of the FCT NUT and the FCT NULGE has unanimously resolved and directed all the primary school teachers and staff of the six area councils in the FCT to, with effect from Thursday, February 13, 2025, resume the suspended strike action until their demands are met”.
“It is saddening to note that all the six area council chairmen have reneged on the agreement they signed on December 9, 2024, to implement the new minimum wage by January, 2025,” the joint union said.
