The Kaduna State Wing of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, will on Monday begin an indefinite strike over the sack of 21,780 public primary school teachers in the state.
The directive to that effect was issued in a notice dated January 4, 2018 by the Assistant Secretary General, of the state wing of the NUT, Adamu Anglo.
It would be recalled that the state government last year sacked the teachers said to have failed a competency test.
Those affected were said to have scored below 75 per cent.
The decision of the state government had ignited a major crisis with the union and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, faulting the procedure of the test.
They called on the state government to recall the sacked teachers, but the state government was unperturbed.
Calling on its members to embark on strike, the union said that the action became necessary following the refusal of the state government to reverse its action after the two weeks ultimatum given it had expired.
According to the union, the state government began issuing sack letters to the affected teachers after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The union stated in its notice: “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.
READ ALSO: Auto crash claims 4 on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
“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 on Monday 8.”
The union also raised other pertinent issues in the notice.
According to it, there were unresolved issues with the state government on 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.
It also pointed out the issue of 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.
Other complaints include that of non-payment of salary arrears of more than 15,000 primary school teachers of one to 12 months from June 2015 to July 2016 and the failure of government to pay the salaries of some teachers, while others were under-paid.
Among others, there was a complaint about the refusal of the government to promote teachers and provide teaching and learning materials to schools.
