Zamfara Council of Chiefs and labour representatives on Sunday met over the face-off between the state government and workers which made workers to embark on indefinite strike last Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the meeting was held in Gusau at the residence of the state’s Deputy Governor, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala, attended by the Chairman of the state’s Council of Chiefs and Emir of Anka, Alhaji Attahiru Ahmad and workers representatives.
The emir told newsmen after the meeting that “we intervened in this issue as fathers to end the strike embarked upon by workers last week and to ease the sufferings of masses.
Ahmad said: “We find it necessary to intervene and we discussed with the state Governor, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Yari this morning before the meeting, therefore, he is aware of this meeting.
“We set up 11-man committee to discuss with the state government to end the face-off.”
According to him, the committee, to be headed by the state’s Head of Service, Alhaji Mujitaba Isah, has five representatives from labour unions and five representatives from traditional rulers and government officials.
He said the committee would serve as intermediary between government and workers toward ending the misunderstanding.
The state’s deputy governor, who hosted the meeting, commended the council of chiefs for attending the meeting.
Wakkala said “Even though I am not officially representating the state government in this meeting, I find it necessary to serve as mediator between this committee and state government to achieve the desired goal.”
The Chairman of the state chapter of Trade Union Congress, Mansur Kaura, said workers in the state were ever ready to listen to calls by the traditional rulers.
Kaura, who spoke on behalf of workers, added that “we are ever ready to listen to them and cooperate with them as our fathers and other stakeholders to find lasting solution to the workers problems”.
Workers in Zamfara, under the umbrella of Nigeria Labour Congress and TUC
last Monday embarked on indefinite strike following the failure of the state government to address their demands.
The workers’ demands included non-implementation of annual increments and promotion over six years, non utilisation of bailout and Paris Club funds to workers issues and non-implementation of minimum wage for local government workers and teachers.
Other demands were non review of pension, non-payment of gratuities for retirees over six years and non-payment of 1,400 workers recruited by the state government for over three years.
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