FCT teachers resume strike over arrears,

Primary school teachers of the Local Education Authority (LEA) in the FCT have resumed their suspended strike over non-payment of their minimum wage arrears and other entitlements by the six area council chairmen of the territory.

Addressing journalists at the end of the FCT NUT wing’s executive council meeting held at the Teachers House in Gwagwalada Area Council on Tuesday night, the Chairman of the wing, Comrade Abdullahi Mohammed Shafas, said the resumption of the strike was due to the non-response of the chairmen to the 14 day-ultimatum issued earlier.

Shafas said that despite the intervention of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to pay 40 per cent of the total sum of the 25 months’ minimum wage arrears to the teachers, the chairmen refused to pay the remaining 60 per cent as promised.

He said the chairmen also failed to implement and pay the 25 and 35 per cent salary increment to the teachers, implementation and payment of 40 per cent peculiar allowance, as well as the payment of arrears of the wage award for the.

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He further said that the chairmen also failed to correct and continue with the implementation of the template on the outstanding arrears of the teachers as agreed in 2022.

He said, “Having exhaustively deliberated on issues at stake, the SWEC-in session, therefore, resolved and directed all the primary school teachers in the FCT to resume the suspended strike with effect from Wednesday, 18th September, 2024.”

The union also directed all the public primary schools in the FCT to remain closed while parents were advised to remain guided by the development until the teachers’ demands were met.

The Chairman of Kwali Area Council and ALGON chairman in the FCT, Danladi Chiya, neither picked calls nor replied to a text message sent to him on the development.