Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, says the federal government did not promise to pay members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) before they go back to work.
Ngige was reacting to a statement by Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU
president, that the federal government failed to deliver on the timelines on
offers made to the union and that lecturers would not resume work until their
salary arrears are paid.
In a statement on Tuesday, Ngige said “it is false and
discomfiting” for ASUU to wrongly inform the public that the government agreed
to pay all withheld salaries before they would resume work.
He said on the part of the government, all timelines have
been complied with and “faithfully implemented”, noting that ASUU had agreed at
the last meeting with the government team on November 27 to call off their
nine-month-old strike before December 9.
“The truth of the matter is that a ‘gentleman agreement’ was
reached at the last meeting in which ASUU agreed to call off the strike before
December 9, 2020, and the minister, in turn, agreed that once the strike is
called off, he would get a presidential waiver for ASUU to be paid the
remainder of their salaries on or before December 9,” the statement said.
“The Minister of Labour and Employment informed that he had
consulted with the Minister of Education on getting a waiver on the issue of
‘No Work, No Pay’ as stipulated in Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, Cap. T8,
Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, but a reservation has been made
concerning this request because of the ongoing strike by ASUU. The minister,
therefore, agreed to work on this to be actualised before Wednesday, December
9, 2020.”
The minister said during the lockdown he got a special
presidential approval to demonstrate good faith to ASUU members and they were
paid.
“They were subsequently paid for two months of February and
March after which it was extended to April, May and June, the months they were
on strike, on compassionate ground, bringing it to five months, ” he said.
“Asking the government to pay these four months before it
goes back to work means ASUU is placing itself above the law of the land and no
government will encourage it as it is a recipe for chaos in the labour milieu.
“The minister later invited ASUU to a virtual conciliatory
meeting, which they turned down. He further requested them to show good faith
over the five months’ salaries government made to them by returning to
classroom and start virtual and online teaching, as being done by private
universities, while government sorts out the rest of their requests; they also
refused.”
Ngige said the N40 billion earned academic allowances have
also been processed as well as the N30 billion revitalisation fund — bringing
the total sum to N70bn.
“Likewise, the visitation panels for the universities have
been approved by the President but the panel cannot perform its
responsibilities until the shut universities are re-opened,” he added.
“The gazetting is also being rounded off at the Office of
the Attorney-General of the Federation while the Ministry of Education is ready
to inaugurate the various visitation panels.”
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