Workers take Rivers gov to industrial court

Over 250 workers, whose the River State Governor, Nyesom Wike, ordered their salaries stopped since February 2016, have dragged the state government to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Bayelsa State.

The workers, who are teachers of primary and demonstration schools of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, IAUE, and Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, KSWP, Bori, have prayed the court to compel the government to pay their salaries.

The Governor had reportedly announced in February 2016 that the state government would no longer pay the salaries of primary and secondary schools’ teachers of demonstration schools of RSUST and other designated institutions where pupils and students pay school fees.

The teachers, comprising 102 of RSUST, 97 of IAUE and 55 of KSWP, claimed that since Wike’s order in February, their relevant institutions had refused to pay their salaries.

While the demonstration schools at KSWP are said to have been shut down since Wike’s directive, those of RSUST and IAUE have yet to be closed down but the affected teachers have remained unpaid for five months.

The claimants (unpaid teachers) in suits NICN/YEN/87/2016 for IAUE; NICN/YEN/88/2016 for KSWP and NICN/YEN/89/2016 for RSUST, sued Nyesom Wike (1st defendant), for ordering the stoppage of their salaries.

The claimants, who prayed the court to declare their appointments valid and subsisting, also joined Attorney-General of Rivers State (2nd defendant) and their various institutions – RSUST, IAUE and KSWP (3rd defendant) in the suit.

In the reliefs sought by the claimants against the defendants, jointly and severally, they prayed the industrial court to declare that their respective employments were valid and subsisting.