New minimum wage: NUT raises the alarm over exclusion of teachers

The national leadership of the NigeriaUnion of Teachers (NUT) has raised the alarm over the exclusion of teachers from the payment of the new national minimum wage of N18,000 by some state governments.Its national president, Comrade Michael Alogba Olukoya, who raised the alarm in an address delivered at the World Teachers' Day, said the stance of some state governments that were said to have excluded the teachers from the new policy was 'totally unacceptable.'According to him, 'the situation of teachers is even made worse, as some state governments have virtually excluded them from the minimum wage, in spite of the compelling force of the law.'The union, therefore, called on the governors to keep faith with the agreement as negotiated, adding that the national minimum wage should not be misconstrued to mean an ouster of the 27.5 per cent enhanced allowance for teachers.Olukoya noted that the teachers' enhanced allowances were meant to address professional hazards, apart from providing incentives for job retention, adding that it was not a replacement for the Teachers Salary Scale (TSS), which is still being demanded from some state governments.In the address read by the Niger State chairman of the union, Mr Tanko Adamu Paiko, he called on all employers of teachers across the country to implement the national minimum wage and the attendant 27.5 per cent allowances, to avoid over-heating the industrial space of the education sector in the country.The NUT boss, however, maintained that Nigerian teachers would stop at nothing and would do everything that it might entail to ensure that the negotiated teachers enhanced allowances was preserved and protected at all times.Speaking on the theme of the celebration, the NUT president said gender equality 'is a human right and one that underpins human endevour for sustainable development, social justice, peace, security and quality education for all.
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