Teachers shun NLC strike

Teachers in public primary and secondary schools in Calabar on Friday shun the strike called by the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) investigation showed that teachers in government secondary and primary schools in State Housing Estate, Calabar, had normal academic classes.

A teacher, Mrs Ann Odey, told NAN that they did not receive any directive to proceed on strike by the leadership of the NLC.

Meanwhile, the state secretariat is firmly under lock and key while in other MDAs outside the secretariat workers are prevented from entering their offices by some labour leaders.

The NLC had in a bulletin directed workers in the state civil service to stay at home from Friday Oct. 2, 2015 until further directives were communicated to them.

In the bulletin, Chairman of NLC, Mr John Ushie, accused the state government of trying to divert the over seven billion naira bailout funds to the state for other purposes.

According the bulletin, "Labour says bailout funds are meant for payment of salary arrears, outstanding gratuities/pension and deduction from salaries.

"Salaries of local government staff, teachers, CRUTECH staff, weighed-in allowance and other salary-related payments.

"Comrades, this is our stand, our demand is that Cross River State Government offsets all these payments with the funds, if not please stay at home from Oct. 2.’’

Labour also accused the government of grounding MDAs by not releasing funds; failure to reconstitute boards of parastatals; lack of promotion, among others.