… describe the directive as illegal, urging teachers to remain on strike over unresolved promotion and welfare issues.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Federal Capital Territory Council, and the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), FCT Wing, have rejected Minister Nyesom Wike’s threat to enforce the no-work, no-pay policy against workers participating in the ongoing strike.
The unions described the directive as unconstitutional, illegal and unenforceable, insisting that the strike was a legitimate response to unresolved grievances between the FCT Administration and teachers.
The NLC FCT Chairman, Knabayi Adalo, and the NUT FCT Wing Secretary, Margaret Jethro, stated their positions in separate circulars issued to members on Sunday.
Wike had on Friday directed area council chairmen to implement the no-work, no-pay policy against striking workers. He also instructed the FCT Head of Civil Service, school principals and headteachers to open daily attendance registers to monitor workers who failed to report for duty.
The directive followed an indefinite strike declared by the NLC on October 7 over unresolved disputes between the FCT Administration and the NUT.
Reacting, Adalo urged workers and teachers to remain steadfast and disregard threats of salary stoppage and attendance monitoring.
He maintained that the right to strike was protected under Nigerian law and international labour standards, citing Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, the Trade Unions Act and International Labour Organisation conventions.
According to him, the NLC FCT Council had fulfilled the legal requirements for the industrial action.
Adalo also argued that Section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act, which provides for the no-work, no-pay principle, applied to illegal strikes and should not be used to punish workers participating in legitimate industrial action.
He accused the FCT Administration of provoking the strike through what he described as violations of teachers’ rights, including the imposition of a vacancy clause on promotions and the demotion of directors covered by the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, 2022.
The labour leader further cited previous judgments of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which he said supported workers’ entitlement to salaries in certain circumstances involving legitimate strikes.
On reports that some school administrators were compelling teachers to sign attendance registers, Adalo directed union members not to sign the registers, describing the exercise as an attempt to undermine the strike.
He urged workers facing threats, harassment or queries to report to the NLC FCT Council Secretariat with evidence.
Adalo also warned that principals and headteachers who forced teachers to sign attendance registers or submitted their names for punitive action could face union picketing.
He called on the FCT Administration to address the unions’ grievances, including the removal of the vacancy clause, the conduct of the 2025 promotion exercise and the reinstatement of demoted directors.
The NUT FCT Wing Secretary, Jethro, also dismissed the no-work, no-pay directive as an empty threat and urged teachers not to return to work out of fear.
She called on members to remain united, peaceful and law-abiding, insisting that their demands concerned their welfare rather than political interests.
Jethro thanked teachers for complying with the strike but accused the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) of betraying the industrial action by withdrawing from it.
She urged teachers to remain at home until the dispute was resolved.