ASUU

FG WINS AS CONUA, NAMDA GET CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION

Published

2 years ago

January 21, 2023

The certificate was presented to the unions in Abuja on Tuesday, January 17, by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige. While presenting the certificate, he also gave indication of payment of the withheld salaries of CONUA members.

The minister lauded CONUA for organizing its points around relevant sections of the Trade Dispute Act, as well as the Trade Union Act.

“I am happy that CONUA is doing the right things by citing relevant sections of the laws to back up its claims on why the Federal Government should pay them their withheld salaries. Their behaviour is unlike some other unions that talk without empirical data and figures. We have heard you. The Federal Government will study your request and respond appropriately,” he said.

Ngige also lauded managements of teaching hospitals of universities in Bauchi, Maduguri, Sokoto and Enugu for opting out of the eight months strike.

Justifying the registration of the two unions from the existing ASUU, Ngige said the procedures adopted in the registration exercise followed due process.

His words:

“There are organisations that have been unbundled. For example, the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was unbundled into power generation and distribution companies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was recently unbundled into the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

“Here in the ministry of labour and employment, we unbundled the pensioner national union. So, there is nothing unusual in unbundling any organisation. The two unions approached us sometimes in 2017 on the need for them to have their separate unions. We set up a committee to review that. It was CONUA that came first.

“Then NAMDA came and we set up committees to study their requests. They claimed that the interests of their members such as allowances are not always captured when ASUU struggle for theirs. They also said some of their members were suspended from ASUU.

“Their case was about exclusion. After we studied their cases, the ministry then decided to register them. Today, I am presenting them with the certificates of recognition as well as the gazette. We advertised in the newspapers for anyone to come up with objections before the requests were gazetted.

“We did not receive any complaints. That is why we are now presenting them with the certificates. By this step, the two unions are officially recognised as labour unions in Nigeria.”

ASUU

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

Published

1 year 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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