FG Declares ASUU Strike Illegal
The Federal Government says the two weeks warning strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is illegal. Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Ngige said he was shocked to read that ASUU had embarked on a warning strike. “They said it is a warning strike but there is nothing like warning strike. A strike is the withdrawal of services for which you are being paid. Then, the question will arise – if you don’t go to work, do you want to be paid? Is it not corruption? So, this is the dilemma. “So, to solve the dilemma I have invited them to the meeting for tomorrow (Thursday). I have invited the minister of education, their principal employer, the finance ministry and the accountant general of the federation. So, we will meet and discuss the way forward because no employee is empowered to dictate to his employer on how he or she should be paid. There is an ILO convention on it. The important thing is that you receive your compensation for services rendered or work done as and when due.”
On the issue of IPPIS which is the bone of contention between the two parties, Ngige noted that government had asked ASUU to nominate members to serve in IPPIS committee in every university. Ngige said ASUU had only turned around to embark on a strike, after they had an agreement with the Government.
“So, if you go on sabbatical, what you should receive in that other place is an allowance, and allowance has a different portal. That is the portal that doctors are using. You know that medical consultants have an arrangement by which they are employed at the universities as lecturers 1, 2 until they ascend to become professors but hospitals are paying them allowances for clinical duties being done, the teaching of medical students, surgical operations, consultations in clinics if you are a physician. “These allowances are captured but IPPIS will not capture two salaries for one person, and the government also said that sabbatical is always after seven years. So, there is no frequency for one person on sabbatical. We are on the same page because they say they want to help fight corruption and weed away ghost workers and they said they have developed a University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
“At the last visit to Mr. President, we said bring UTAS and we will merge it with IPPIS for you as a special peculiarity because the staff that will manage the IPPIS in the university are staff of the university not people in Abuja. We asked ASUU to nominate those to serve in the IPPIS committee in every institution. So, that is where we are after the visit to Mr. President.”