The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige says any strike by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities would be illegal and might prompt the ministry to take legal actions.
Dr Ngige while speaking to State House correspondents after a private meeting with the president in Abuja, said the last conversation the government had with the non-teaching staff ended with a plan by both parties to meet next week to continue negotiations, therefore any planned strike before that will be regarded as a breakdown in negotiations.
He added that if the negotiation and what has been agreed is not obeyed, then the ministry might have to refer the dispute upwards from the industrial arbitration panel to the national industrial court.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on December 23, 2020, “conditionally” suspended the strike it embarked on in March 2020 over the backlog
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The National President, National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, at the weekend declared that the varsity workers will definitely go on strike if the congresses give the leadership the go-ahead and the government failed to address the fundamental issues before the universities are reopened.
However, Comrade Nwokoma has called for the convocation of Education Summit where all the issues in contention and all fundamental issues affecting the smooth running of academic activities in the universities would be taken care of holistically.
He said the leadership of NAAT had already directed its branches in university nationwide to hold their congresses to take a final decision on the issue of strike; and added that NAAT would definitely go on strike if their congresses arrived at such decision.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige
The year 2020 was used by the organised labour to prepare for likely frustration awaiting the movement in 2021.
The characterisations of the struggles that the organised labour embarked upon last year and the unsatisfactory resolutions indeed prepared the docility labour will witness this year.
For the records, the struggles of labour movement were divided into two. The first was the two-in-one struggle against deregulation of the downstream sector and increment in electricity tariffs. The second aspect was the struggles of the trade unions in the federal universities which lasted for more than nine months.
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Members of the Non-Academic Staff Union and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities protesting the non-payment of minimum wage, welfare arrears, IPPIS and sharing
formula of the N40bn Earned Allowance in Abuja on Tuesday. Photo: Olatunji Obasa
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Non-academic unions in universities and the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday differed on the Federal Government’s N40bn earned allowance for the institutions’ workers.
While ASUU President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, in an interview with
The PUNCH, justified the amount promised lecturers out of the N40bn, non-academic unions described the Federal Government’s sharing formula as illogical and a divide and rule tactic.