French Village staff school teachers protest short payment of salaries

Teachers at the Nigeria French Language Village Staff School in Badagry on Thursday protested against alleged continuous short payment of their salaries.The protest, which was peaceful, crippled activities in the staff school as pupils were sent back home.Some of the protesting staff of the school said that the NFLV management had refused to honour the agreement it reached with the staff despite several promises.The teachers said they agreed to 20 per cent salary cut when management wanted to terminate their appointments following Federal Government’s directive that universities should stop paying staff schools’ salaries.“We were able to reach a compromise and we agreed that our salaries would be slashed by 20 per cent because the management said they didn’t have enough funds to accommodate our salaries.“In December 2016, we won the suit against the Federal Government at the Industrial Court and we were able to finally reach an agreement with the management in Oct 2017. The management then promised to revert to our previous salaries while arrears would be paid.“We received our January salary yesterday and it was still the old salary, so we decided to embark on this strike as the management has taken us for granted and we can’t tolerate such anymore,” said a staff who pleaded anonymity.Another staff, who did not want his name mentioned, said that the management owed them staff salary arrears from January to December 2017.“The management keep on complaining about lack of funds but we know it is a lie because pupils’ fees are remitted to its account, so lack of funds isn’t an excuse,” the staff noted.Mrs Adenike Olateju, a parent of one of the pupils, pleaded with the staff and management to find a lasting solution to the crisis.“It’s our children that suffer as they would be out of school and this would affect them negatively. Both parties should come together and resolve the issues,” she said.Mr Festus Okundia, NFLV Public Relations Officer, said on telephone that the issue would be resolved “as the management is presently having a meeting with the staff.“The major issue is that the institution doesn’t have the funds to pay them and that was why we initially reached an agreement with them to reduce their salary by 20 per cent.“As soon as the funds are available, they would be paid all their entitlements, including arrears, but they must exercise patience because of the situation of things right now,” he said.

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