ASUU

ASUU’S RIVAL, CONUA URGES FG TO PAY WITHHELD SALARIES

Published

2 years ago

January 23, 2023

The leadership of the Congress of University Academics has appealed to the Federal Government to be magnanimous and pay all university lecturers their eight months withheld salaries.

The Federal Government withheld the salary covering eight months that the lecturers stayed away from their duty posts in the year 2022, following an industrial action ordered by the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Even though the Federal Government had commenced the process of paying members of CONUA the withheld salaries since they noted they did not join the strike, the president of the newly approved Union, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, however, appealed to FG that all lecturers should be paid.

Sunmonu spoke on Saturday during CONUA’s maiden National Executive Council meeting held at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he was ratified as the pioneer national president.

He said, “CONUA has consistently maintained before now, that it didn’t declare any strike and by the provision of section 43 subsection 1B of the trade dispute act, what happened to members of CONUA can be taken to be what happens in that provision of that section.

“To our mind, what the government is implementing is a ‘no work no pay’ policy. We believe we wanted to work, we didn’t declare strike, and the students that we needed to teach were asked to vacate the campus.

“So, it will be unjust for the government to apply the ‘no work no pay’ policy to us, and on that principle is what we are following, through which we wrote letters to various ministries and it is consistent that we have never declared a strike and we are not striking.

“As far as the crisis is concerned, as far as we are concerned, it won’t degenerate into issues because the other union declares strike and they can actually state their case before the government or the court.

“The only thing we can do at this stage is to appeal to the FG to be magnanimous to pay everybody. But along the line of principle, CONUA did not declare a strike, and the ‘no work no pay’ policy will be unjust to be applied to it.”

In the communique issued at the end of the meeting, CONUA opined that education could be made cheap by ensuring an uninterrupted academic calendar.

It also urged the government to “ensure reasonable utilisation of university autonomy” and urgently stop “seemingly unseen corruption and fix accreditation fraud in the universities.”

ASUU

NLC, TUC, ASUU, Others Defy Court Order As They Begin Strike

Published

12 months ago

November 14, 2023

Pamilerin Fedpolygist

The NLC had on Monday announced the commencement of the industrial action from midnight of Monday, 13 November, in defiance to a restraining order issued by the National Industrial Court in Abuja on Friday.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and its affiliates including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Tuesday, began a nationwide strike, in defiance to a restraining court order barring them from embarking on the industrial action.

The two major labour unions, NLC and TUC, had declared the strike, following the brutalisation of the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, in Imo State on 1 November. Mr Ajaero was attacked in Owerri, the state capital, during an NLC protest against the Imo State government over alleged maltreatment of workers in the state.

The unions on Monday directed their members to down tools across the country as from Tuesday.

This is despite the restraining order issued by the National Industrial Court, in Abuja, on Friday, stopping the labour unions from embarking on the strike. The judge, Benedict Kanyip, ordered the two major labour unions to stop their industrial action scheduled to commence 14 November.

The interim order followed an ex-parte request by the Nigerian government through the office of Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, due to the Labour unions’ threat to embark on strike.

Ignoring the court order, ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, on Monday, directed compliance with the strike declaration in a letter to ASUU zonal coordinators and branch chairpersons across the country.

“As an affiliate of NLC, all members of our union are hereby directed to join this action of NLC to protect the interest of Nigerian workers and the leadership of the union. Zonal coordinators and branch chairpersons should immediately mobilise our members to participate in the action,” ASUU President, Mr Osodeke, wrote in a letter to zonal and branch chairpersons of the union.

When PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Osodeke if he was aware of the subsisting court order stopping the strike, he said the question should be directed to the NLC which called for the strike.

“Call the NLC, ASUU did not declare a strike, NLC declared the strike. Call NLC,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning.

But the NLC’s head of information, Benson Upah, did not respond to phone calls and messages sent to his line requesting for comments, as of the time of filing this report.

The labour unions had, on Monday, refused to acknowledge the court order while directing their members to withdraw their services as from Tuesday.

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