The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Ogun State Chapter, has suspended its proposed industrial action scheduled to commence yesterday (January 28).
The Ogun State President, Comrade Ayuba Olatunji, disclosed this yesterday after a breakfast meeting hosted by Governor Ibikunle Amosun and attended by some labour leaders at the Government House.
“Because of the laudable projects of the state government, we have no option than to suspend our industrial action.
“We believe that all our agreement with the government would be fulfilled”, he said.
Meanwhile, teachers in public primary and secondary schools in Ogun State have expressed satisfaction with the action taken by Amosun towards the resolution of their two-week strike.
Leadership of various unions in government-owned schools, including Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Association of Primary School Teachers, All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Public Schools (ANCOPS) and Association of Primary Schools Head Teachers, who also attended the breakfast meeting, commended the governor for acceding to their demands.
Speaking with journalists, the State Chairman of NUT, Comrade Dare Ilekoya said all issues that led to the strike had been amicably resolved, attributing the action, which was called off on Monday, to communication gap between the union and government.
“We have come to realise that there is a communication gap between the government and the teaching force which caused the strike. We want to thank God that all issues have been resolved and going by the words of His Excellency, most of our demands have been met by the state government.
“He has graciously approved that something must be done to promote degree holders in primary schools to go beyond level 14 and that appointment of Principals-General, which he had long approved, be expedited,” he said.
The ASUSS Chairman, Comrade Akeem Lasisi, who described the state’s helmsman as a “teacher-comrade governor” stated that, “all teachers in the state have Senator Amosun in their minds, contrary to some claims that we were sponsored by some politicians.
“In secondary schools where senior teachers had been placed below their junior ones for a long time, Governor Amosun, when he came on board, ensured the approval of the harmonization of career progression of NCE/Degree teachers by placing each person where he belongs.
“How can we say we will not be closer to such a governor? He has promised that October deduction, which he was not aware of its non-payment, would be paid alongside our January salaries and that subsequent salaries would be paid alongside other deductions,” he stated.
The state chapter of NULGE had given the state government seven days ultimatum to meet some of the council workers’ demands, failure which it said they would embark on their own strike.
A statement by the secretary of the state NULGE, Bamidele Oyeniran, in Abeokuta, said that the demands had been presented to the state governor since December 2014.
It added that the ultimatum would lapse on Tuesday, January 27.
The Ogun council workers are requesting that the payment of primary schools’ teachers’ salary should be shared 50-50 between the state and the local governments as opposed to the current system where only the councils pay primary school teachers.
They also want the state government to be paying 10 per cent of its Internally Generated Revenue to the Joint Account Allocation Committee account as contained in the Allocation Act 1982 as amended.