By Sunday John
A meeting between the Nasarawa State Government and the Joint Union of Tertiary Institutions (JUTI) to find an amicable solution to the institutions workers’ demands on Friday in Lafia ended in deadlock.
Mr Paul Usani, Chairman of the Join union, told journalists that the meeting ended in deadlock, adding that the workers would continue with the ongoing strike.
“We will continue to stay at home until all our demands are met, because the state government did not bring anything new to the table,” Usani said.
Contributing,Mr Abari Aboki, the state Head of Service and leader of the government delegation said it would be difficult to meet the workers’ demands at this period of transition of government.
“We have met and listened to their demands and we have also appealed to them to suspend the strike, given that transition process had begun.
“The state government has set up machinery for the transition of government to the governor-elect on May 29, therefore it would be difficult to meet their demands at this period,” Aboki said.
Similarly, Clement Uhembe, Commissioner for Higher Education, said most of the demands of the workers were inherited by Gov.Umaru Al-Makura, adding that some of them had been met.
Uhembe appealed to the union to suspend the strike in order to give the government opportunity to implement other recommendations on staff welfare.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the union embarked on strike on Feb. 12 to press for the payment of four years promotion arrears and the implementation of 65 years retirement age for non-teaching staff.
Other demands of the union are: non-payment of pension arrears to retired staff since 2015, and failure to implement White Paper of investigating panels among others. (NAN)
