Staff unions of the three Kwara state-owned Colleges of Education in Ilorin, Oro and Lafiagi have reached an agreement with the state government to suspend the strike action embarked upon by their workers.

The unions include the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (SSUCOEN).

The decision to end the industrial action was reached following the government's announcement that it will release two-month salary arrears to workers of the three colleges of Education.

Consequently, the staff unions have resolved to meet their members with a view to endorsing the agreement for the suspension of strike action so that academic activities will resume on the campuses next Monday.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Kwara State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Dr. Amina Ahmed on Wednesday after a meeting with representatives of the staff unions.

According to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the unions and the state government, the striking staff of the colleges will be paid their salary arrears for the months of September and November, 2015 by Monday 18, January, 2016 via a loan to be accessed from a commercial bank.

Part of the agreement reached was that authorities of the colleges shall open an attendance register in their schools as from next week Monday, and that no union leader or member shall be victimized on account of the industrial action.

It was also agreed that all backlog of salaries owed the workers from April to July, 2015 will be taken care of when the expected bail-out fund promised by the Federal Government is received by the state government.

In case of any further delay in the release of the bail-out fund by the FG, the unions asked the state government to direct the management of the colleges to pay gradually from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the institutions.

The State government appreciated the workers for their peaceful conduct during the strike action while pledging that it will release the back-log of salaries owned the workers as soon as expected bailout from the CBN is received.