From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Taraba State Joint Public Service Negotiating Council has announced the commencement of an indefinite strike action to compel the state government to implement the N30,000 new Minimum Wage following the state government’s failure to implement it and engage the workers.
In a statement issued in Jalingo on Thursday and signed by the state Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Peter Jediel, and two others, the workers alleged that the government has demonstrated high insensitivity to the plight of workers in the state.
Jediel noted that the path of peace towed by workers in the state in this regard has not yielded any result and urged all workers to embark on the indefinite strike actions as from Sunday night.
‘It is no longer news that the Taraba State government has demonstrated high insensitivity to the plight of workers in the state. We wrote a demand letter dated February 2nd arising from the memorandum of understanding signed on 7th October 2020 but the government has failed to respond to it till date. Hopes for the implementation of the new national Minimum Wage through peaceful means are apparently lost.
‘Therefore, the organized labour in the state hereby direct all workers to resume the earlier suspended strike action by 12:00 hours midnight on Sunday, 28th March 2021,’ the statement read in part.
Primary school teachers in the state had a clash with hoodlums recently when they converged on the NUT house in Jalingo to offer prayers that the governor would pay them their six months outstanding salaries.
