Ngige: FG Has Met Striking Varsity Staff’s 12-point Demands

Urges them to shelve strike Threatens to invoke no work, no pay

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has said the federal government has not only fully met all the 12-point conditions raised in the Memorandum of Settlement reached  with the non-teaching staff of federal universities on September 20, 2017 but has also complied faithfully with the timelines for the implementation of the agreement .

To this end,  Ngige asked the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) operating under the acronym of the Joint Action Committee, to call-off the on-going indefinite strike and make a fresh case in respect of its reservation on the implementation of the point one of the agreement concerning the disbursement of the N23 billion earned allowances.

The minister in a statement yesterday in Abuja signed by the Deputy Director (Press), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Samuel Olowookere, said it was important for Nigerians to be informed that the federal government has fully complied with its own part of the agreement and asked the non-teaching staff of universities not to blame the federal government for what the striking unions termed the “skewed disbursement formula” for the N23 billion earned allowances released by the federal government.

He stated: “The JAC of non-teaching staff came with twelve-point demand. We sat over it and agreed on all, on September 20, 2017. As I speak, the federal government has fully implemented the major contemporary issues such as payment of shortfalls, registration with PENCOM and others in the agreement. The only grievance the unions have today is that the modality for the disbursement of the N23 billion the federal government released for the settlement of earned allowances is skewed against them.”

“But I advised them during the negotiation to call off their strike when it entered the fifth day and quickly forward their own template for accessing this N23 billion meant for the academic and non-academic staff of the universities, since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had already submitted. They bluntly refused and dragged the strike for weeks.”

He however, said nothing has been lost and urged the unions to make a fresh case for inclusion in the 2018 budget, adding that the federal government was willing to address this.

Urging the unions to immediately call off their strike, Ngige flawed the argument that “they only resumed an old strike,” saying that a strike which has been adequately conciliated, called off, and the terms of agreement implemented, cannot yield itself as a basis for resumption of the same action.
“If the unions under JAC are embarking on a fresh strike, they are yet to comply with the relevant sections of the labour laws for embarking on action.”

The minister further warned the unions to stop misguiding their staff members and avoid pushing the federal government to a situation where it would invoke the relevant section of the labour laws on no work, no pay, saying it would be disastrous in the season of Christmas and end of the year if implemented.

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