Kwara Secondary School Teachers Takes NUT to Court Over Illegal Salary Deductions
The Kwara State branch of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) has filed a lawsuit against the state’s Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) at an industrial court in Akure, Ondo State.
The Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, led by Chairman Aduagba Mansur, alleges illegal deductions of check-off dues from its members despite their withdrawal from the NUT in 2020. The union, representing over 9,000 members, claims that these dues have been deducted without their consent, and they are seeking a refund of the amounts collected unlawfully.
The union named several parties in the lawsuit, including the NUT, the State Teaching Service Commission, the Commissioner for Finance, the Head of Service, and the Attorney-General of the state
In their petition, the union asked the court to stop the deductions and issue a perpetual injunction to prevent further unauthorized deductions from their members’ salaries as they also sought an order for the defendants to render accounts of all the deductions and to refund the amounts wrongly deducted. The union points to violations of the 1999 Constitution, the Trade Unions Act, and the Labour Act, accusing the defendants of flagrantly disregarding these provisions.
Both the State Chairman of TESCOM, Abubakar Bello Taoheed, and the State Chairman of NUT, Yusuf Agboola, have refrained from commenting on the matter, with the former stating that lawyers are handling the case. The ASUSS’s legal action aims to protect the interests of its members and ensure that they are not subjected to unlawful deductions.
