A parley between abia state government and the leadership of the abia state chapter of the nigeria union of teachers (nut) held late monday in umuahia ended in a deadlock.
the meeting presided over by the commissioner of finance, mr. obinna oriaku, was convened to fashion out ways of ending the indefinite strike embarked upon by public primary and secondary school teachers in the state over unpaid wages.
a source at the meeting said that the teachers rejected the appeal by government to suspend the strike with a firm promise to commence payment by march.
according to the source, “teachers are tired of empty promises but want action”, hence their resolve to push ahead with the strike until their demands are met.
following the deadlock, government has extended the resumption date for public schools in the state by one week to allow for further negotiations with the nut leadership.
the teachers are protesting over five months salary arrears.
apart from nut executive members, the state chairman of the nigeria labour congress ( nlc), comrade uchenna obigwe was also said to be in the parley.
according to an insider source, obigwe “ raised three major issues during the meeting including the implementation of the teachers salary structure (tss), leave grant, and that the primary school teachers salary must be paid at the same time with the secondary school counterparts.”
source: authorityngr
