FG Moves to Avert Strike, Meets Varsity Workers Tomorrow

FG Moves to Avert Strike, Meets Varsity Workers Tomorrow

*Holds talks with labour today over fuel price, electricity tariffs

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The federal government has fixed a meeting with the leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non Academic Staff Union of Universities and Allied Institutions (NASU) on Tuesday (tomorrow)

Officials of the federal government and the organised labour will also meet today (Monday) at the Bouquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja to assess the reports of the two joint committees set up to devise ways of monitoring the prices of electricity and petrol in the country.

Tomorrow’s meeting is to forestall an impending industrial action that may result in another shutdown of the country’s tertiary institutions.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige confirmed the meeting to THISDAY yesterday.

He said that the non-teaching unions have been invited to the meeting to try iron out their grievances and to prevent them from proceeding on strike by February 5 as threatened.

Ngige said: ‘ We have received their notice of strike and a meeting has been fixed for Tuesday to discuss the issues”.

The unions had jointly issued an ultimatum to the federal government to address their grievances by February 5 or face an indefinite industrial action.

SSANU and NASU had earlier undertaken a three-day protest at the all the universities in the country to draw government’s attention to their grievances.

In a related development, the officials of the federal government and the organised labour will also meet today (Monday) at the Bouquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja to assess the reports of the two joint committees set up to devise ways of monitoring the prices of electricity and petrol in the country.

The committees were given up till January 25 to conclude their assignments and submit their reports to the federal government.

According to the notice of the meeting signed by the Deputy Director and Head of Press and Public Relations at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Charles Akpan, the minister, Ngige will be hosting a bilateral discussion between the federal government and the organised labour.

The notice said the meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 1, 2021 at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa by 7pm.

One of the committees on electricity tariff is headed by the Minister of State for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo while the Technical Committee on Petrol Pricing Framework has Mr. Onochie Azubuike Anyaoku as its chairman.

The Keyamo-led committee, which was set up late last year in the wake of protests by organised labour over alleged 100 per cent hike in electricity tariff is expected to carry out a thorough review of the yardstick and processes used to fix the tariff.

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