By Ikechukwu Nnochiri – Abuja
In solidarity with the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, the staff of the Federal High Court have declared a two-week indefinite strike.
The judicial workers, under the umbrella of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, ordered the closure of all offices in court from Monday, in line with the joint decision of both the labour and trade unions in the country to embark on industrial action in protest of the recent hike in the prices of electricity and petroleum products.
The directive for courts to be shut from Monday came barely twenty-four hours after the National Industrial Court, NIC, in Abuja, issued an order that stopped the planned action by NLC and TUC.
READ ALSO: Court restrains NLC,TUC from embarking on planned Sept 28 strike
The unsigned notice for the commencement of strike judicial workers, copies of which were circulated in and around the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, read: “Please be informed that the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), Federal High Court chapter shall, in collaboration with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), commences a two-week indefinite strike action from Monday the 28th day of September 2020.
“All offices shall remain closed within this period. You are required to comply.”
Recall that the Industrial Court, in a ruling on an ex-parte motion that was filed on Thursday by a Non-Governmental Organization, NGO- Incorporated Trustees of Peace and Unity Ambassadors Association- restrained the NLC and the TUC from embarking on an indefinite strike on Monday.
In a ruling by Justice Ibrahim Galadima, the court gave an interim injunction restraining the unions, their officers, affiliates, privies from disrupting, restraining, picketing, or preventing the workers or its affiliates or ordinary Nigerians from accessing their offices to carry out their legitimate duties on September 28, 2020, or any other date.
