Adebayo Adenrele
The Federal Government of Nigeria is on the move to ban the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) if it fails to call off the prolonged strike.
According to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, he stated that Federal Government had invoked the ‘no work, no pay’ policy for the striking public university workers with no retreat on its total implementation.
The four university-based unions, who have been agitating for the payment of earned allowances includes ASUU, its own Earned Academic Allowances, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU), the Non-Academic Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
NEWSTODAYNG recalled that ASUU had embarked on a month warning strike on February 14, 2022 and has been rolling over the strike till date, while the other three unions, starting with NAAT, downed tools in March.
Among the contentious issues are the non-release of revitalization funds, earned allowances, problems associated with payment of salaries through the use of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS and the re-negotiation of the 2009 Agreement.
While ASUU has insisted that its members should be paid through its preferred platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, the non-teaching staff, especially SSANU and NASU, have designed their own payment platform, the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, U3PS.
All the the three platforms have been submitted to the government through the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, which has subjected them to integrity tests.
While SSANU and NASU through their umbrella, Joint Action Committee, JAC, on Saturday signed agreement to suspend the strike on Wednesday for two months, ASUU has remained adamant, insisting that the government should pay its members the withheld five months salary before it would suspend the six months strike.
