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Striking workers in Adamawa State have called off their six week long strike.

Mr Mohammed Tuki,
the chairman of the state Joint Public Service Negotiating Council,
communicated the decision to workers at the Labour House.

Nevertheless,
labour officials insisted they were calling off the strike only for a
two-week duration as a result of arbitration; they vowed to return if
negotiations with the government during that period fails.

The state
government had taken labour in the state before the Industrial
Arbitration Court in Abuja, as way of resolving the dispute with the
angry workers whose action grounded social and economic activities in
the state.

A two-week truce

“We urge you
workers to go back to work tomorrow. We are only calling off this
strike for two weeks only, and if the government fails to meet our
demands within this time, we shall call on you to continue the strike
action,” the chairman of the joint public service negotiating council
in the state said to the workers, also thanking them for their support.

Mr Dauda Buba, the
state chairman of the Labour Congress, in his statement, said the
workers were honouring the arbitration by the National Industrial Court
on the matter directing both labour and the government to go back to
the negotiating table. He said they were expected to submit a signed
and sealed agreement reached by both parties, to the industrial
arbitration court.

“On that basis, the
court appealed to the labour side,” he said. “So we are now suspending
the strike for two weeks to enable us complete all necessary
agreements.”

As the court awaits
both parties to appear before it with an agreement reached by both
parties, it remains to be seen what would transpire. However, the state
Attorney General is confident that the matter will be resolved amicably.

The bone of
contention in the dispute which has crippled governance in Adamawa
State, is Labour’s demand that the government re-instate 56 workers
claimed to have been arbitrarily sacked from two parastaltals in the
state – the College of Legal Studies and the state-owned Transport
Company. The state government on its part disagrees, accusing Labour of
“blackmail”, and maintaining that the striking workers have seen all of
their demands agreed to except its “refusal to remove the provost of
the College of Legal Studies and the General Manager of the State
Transport Company”.

Until the recent truce reached through arbitration, both the
government and labour had remained adamant, neither refusing to
compromise.