Taraba workers down tools over new minimum wage

NDE to train 1,200 women, youths in skills
The alleged refusal of Taraba State Government to implement the new national minimum wage of N30,000 has pushed civil servants across public establishments in the state to down tools.

The development cut short the excitement among students when a directive to re-open all tertiary institutions in the state was issued by Governor Darius Ishaku, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the state also vowed to stay away from the school environment till their demands are met.

While the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state based their actions on the “silence on our negotiated new national minimum wage,” the dons tied their strike to the renegotiation of 2009 agreement on the review of salaries and mainstreaming of Earned Academic Allowances, which they said were yet to be resolved.

The NLC Chairmen, Peter Jediel, and his TUC counterpart, Abel Abasu, yesterday in Jalingo, noted that the only option left for them to compel the government to join other states that had implemented the new wage was indefinite strike.

MEANWHILE, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is set to empower no fewer than 1,200 unemployed women and youths in Taraba with skills.

The state coordinator, Alhaji Aderemi Adebisi, stated this yesterday while flagging off the training in Jalingo under the Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (B-NOAS).

This, according to him, is not only designed to reduce unemployment in the state, but to make the teeming unemployed persons to acquire skills that would discourage them from going about searching for unavailable white-collar jobs.

While some, especially the women, would be trained on Special B-NOAS, others would be trained in tailoring, computer repairs, shoe making, salon business, among others.

The beneficiaries, who were evenly selected from the 16 councils spread of the state, would as well be given monthly stipends throughout the three-month exercise.