NLC strike paralyzes activities in courts

The on-going industrial action declared by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Nasarawa has paralysed activities in courts in parts of the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that all the courts inMararaba, a suburb of the state did not open for work since on Wednesday.

The State High Court, the Upper Area Court, the Grade 1 Area Court, the Senior Magistrate’s court and the Chief Magistrate’s all located in Mararaba were under lock.

Speaking on the development on Friday, Mr Jimoh Musa, the state Chairman, Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), said that the union took the decision to join the strike on Wednesday.

He explained that "JUSUN is an affiliate of NLC and whatever concerns the congress also concerns our union’’

"For over 5 years, the NLC in the state has been demanding for promotion of workers, annual increment in salaries, leave allowances and others.

"We met with the state Dep. Governor, Silas Agara, and other officials, but the meeting did not yield good results. We could not arrive at a reasonable conclusion,’’ he said.

The chairman said the strike would be called off as soon as the government responded positively to their demands.

NAN recalls that workers in the state on Monday down tools to protest many unresolved issues concerning their welfare.
The issues put forward by the state NLC included; inconsistency in payment of salaries of local government workers and unauthorised deductions from their emoluments.

The congress was also protesting the alleged omission of names of some teachers from the payroll since 2011 as a result of the biometric that was conducted.

Other demands included salary increment and regular promotion of staff members in line with statutory provisions.