The Kwara State wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers has absolved the state government of a purported illegal deduction from teachers' salaries under the state Teaching Service Commission for the month of September 2022.

The union made its position known in a statement jointly signed by the state chairman, Oyewo Bashiru, and state secretary, Moni Modesty, and made available to journalists in Ilorin on Sunday.

The statement revealed that the said check-off dues deduction was in line with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment's approved NUT Constitution amendments in 2014, wherein the monthly payable check-off dues by members were increased from two per cent to three per cent of members' monthly basic/consolidated salaries.

It further stated that this had been implemented across the federation and the Federal Capital Territory since 2014 except in Kwara State, which has been maintaining a 1.39 per cent deduction that is at variance with the law, but unknown to the state government.

The statement said the directive to effect and comply with the newly-approved rate, which had been in existence since 2014, was given by the headquarters of the NUT which mandated the NUT state leadership to liaise with the state government to ensure what is due to the union is correctly deducted.

It read in part, “That since the year 2014, employers of public school teachers (who are empowered by the relevant sections of Trade Union Laws in Nigeria), in the states of the federation, and the FCT, except Kwara State, implemented and continued to implement the three kobo per naira (three per cent) rate as monthly check-off dues for the NUT in their states and FCT.

“That the NUT national headquarters, Abuja, investigated the compliance level by states in respect of the three kobo per naira deductions, and discovered that Kwara State wing teachers were yet to do the needful after nine years of the existence of the new rate; and ordered the state wing to liaise with the state government through the Office of the Head of Service and state controller, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kwara State office to have the anomaly rectified.

“That the follow-up action to the directives of the NUT national headquarters by the state wing, led to the state government's correction of the age-long anomaly in the September 2022 payrolls of teachers under TESCOM; which will eventually cascade to teachers under the employment of the State Universal Basic Education Board.”