Justice Sanusi Kardo of the Industrial Court of Nigeria in Calabar, has given an order suspending the ongoing strike and sit at home action embarked upon by the Cross River State Branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress and other affiliate unions in the state.
The unions went on strike on Tuesday, October 12, citing the Cross River State government's failure to meet its demands.
It listed 14 issues in contention which included nonpayment of gratuities to retirees of both state and local government councils’ workers for the past six years.
Others are the non remittances of deductions from workers’ salaries and the full implementation of the minimum wage to both state and local government workers.
Also listed are non implementation of promotions arrears to workers of both state and local government councils’ workers and reinstatement of pensioners wrongfully removed from payroll.
But on Wednesday, Justice Sanusi Kardo of the Industrial Court of Nigeria in Calabar, gave an order ordering the suspension with immediate effect, the ongoing strike and sit at home action embarked upon by the Cross River State Branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress and other affiliate unions in the state.
Honorable Justice Kardo gave the order on Wednesday, October 19, 2021 in Calabar restraining Labour and other affiliate Labour groups from further holding rallies pursuant to the strike and locking up government premises.
The Industrial Court Justice ruled that the strike action embarked upon by the Nigeria labour Congress (NLC) in the state did not comply with S.18 of the trade dispute Act.
Justice Sanusi Kardo further urged parties to negotiate on any issues if there are any to be negotiated to arrive at amicable resolution.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Cross River State had instituted legal action against NLC in the state for embarking on strike since last week and locking up government offices.
He contended that labour did not comply with the requirements of the law before embarking on the current industrial action.
No Court Can Stop Us - Labour
Meanwhile, the Organized Labour has said that no court can suspend its ongoing action.
The Union in a memo on Wednesday, said: “A government with no Conscience” they stated that the Ayade led adminstration was shopping for a court order to truncate the ongoing strike.
“Instead of settling our demands, the government of Prof. Ben Ayade is rather shopping for a court order to truncate the ongoing strike action.
“Comrades, discountenance any directives from any person from the state government, not even a court order can break our determination to get justice from the government.
“We cannot be slaves in our state, don’t pay attention to any directives from anyone in government continue to stay at home until you hear from us,” they stated.
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