Minimum Wage: Adamawa NUT Boss Lauds Rep's Decision

Minimum Wage: Adamawa NUT Boss Lauds Rep's Decision

By Billy Graham Abel Yola

The Adamawa state Chairnan of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, Nathan Rodley has praised the lower chamber of the national Assembly for endorsing the thirty thousand minimum wage saying it is a sign that Nigerians have true representatives in the house and that they are people who hear and understand the plight the Nigerian worker.

Rodley explained that the 30,000 naira minimum wage, was a figure reached as a result of serious work by a tripartite committee which has the federal government was fully represented, so it was surprising to see the federal government turning its back on it.

He said the federal government decision would have prolonged the protest although he has been optimistic that the national assembly would not have endorsed anything other than the originally reached figure.

Rodley made the remarks, Thursday, while addressing press in Yola, Adamawa.

Rodney said, "The legislators have demonstrated that they understand what labour is demanding for, which is just one thousand naira daily pay and that is not too much to ask.

"Both federal and state government workers go to the same market, hospital and are faced with the same daily needs."

Speaking on an ongoing development towards improving learning in the state, he said, "There is a bill that would soon be endorsed by the governor.

"The bill prescribes among other benefits that 10% of the basic salary of a teacher would be added to the teachers income if they are posted to a rural area.

"This move would reduce the heavy concentration of teachers in the city centers and encourage teachers to support learning in the rural areas."

The union boss praised the introduction of e-payment with respect to teachers salary by the Bindow led government saying the move has mitigated shoddy practices in the payment of teachers in the state and called for an upward review of the retirement age of secondary and primary school teachers.

Rodley further explained that there is an ongoing drive to bolster the number of teachers in the state by about 1500 staff.

He said, "We have received about 25,000 applications and screened them down to about 9,000 qualified applicants.

"We are still on it and I expected that by this time we would have completed both oral and written test for the applicants but nonetheless, we are hopeful that we would soon see it through."

He however lamented that some politicians seeking waivers for employment are not helping the process because their candidates may not meet the standard required of persons recruited to teach.

He then used the occasion to call on teachers to exercise their Civic rights by voting for the candidates of their choice in the forth coming elections saying teachers would have no right to complain if they do not vote.