Ogun, Ekiti propose 15% increment for striking teachers

Governments of Ogun and Ekiti have proposed to pay striking teachers in their states 15 per cent of the 27.5 Teachers Salary Scale that the tutors are demanding.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers leadership had two weeks ago urged teachers in 11 states, including Ogun and Ekiti states, to embark on industrial action following the inability of the states to pay the 27.5 TSS.

But the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Segun Odubela, while speaking to reporters on Saturday in Abeokuta, noted that although the government was still negotiating with the NUT leadership, it could not afford the 27.5 per cent being demanded by the union.

Odubela said the teachers in the state under the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools and NUT would be paid the 15 per cent largesse from the end of July 2013.

He said, “Concerning the NUT strike, I can assure you that we have been having negotiations with them and, of course, the government has agreed to pay 15 per cent. You know they are agitating for 27.5 per cent but the government is prepared to pay 15 per cent and they have been informed of this.

“The implementation will be from the end of July. It is there in a statement released by the Secretary to the State Government. From the end of next month, the government will begin to implement the 15 per cent. We are talking about our teachers. Where they belong is not the business of government. What we are saying is that we are concerned about our teachers. But as far as we are concerned, we are looking at the teachers as a whole.”

But the state NUT Chairman, Dare Ilekoya, has vowed that members of the union would not accept anything less than the 20 per cent of the 27.5 per cent of the allowance.

But Ilekoya’s comment came as the ASUSS state President, Mr. Tunde Folarin, accused the NUT of working against the ASUSS.

The ASUSS earlier hinted that its members would accept the government’s proposed 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Government has appealed  to teachers in the state to accept 15 per cent allowance and end the strike.

The state Commissioner for Education, Mr. Kehinde Ojo, his counterparts in Information and Labour,  Mr. Tayo Ekundayo and Mr. Oluwole Ariyo, made the plea at a briefing in Ado Ekiti on Friday.

Ekundayo said the government activities would be crippled if it implemented 27.5  per cent for the teachers.

He explained that implementing this would increase the wage bill of the state by N1.8bn yearly.

PUNCH