The Federal Government (FG) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may have resolved their long time issues after so many tussles as the former (FG) released N40 billion for the payment of earned academic allowances.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also waived the “No Work, No Pay” Trade Act for striking university lecturers for the sake of peace.
READ ALSO: No-Work, No-Pay Rule: FG warns varsity workers
This was confirmed by Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige over the weekend in an interview with The Nation.
Out of the N40 billion released, about N10 billion was voted for the payment of earned allowances of members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and technologists.
Also, the government is likely to release N30 billion revitalisation funds to varsities by the end of this month.
Although the non-academic staff have threatened to embark on a strike over the sharing formula by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the government said when a similar payment was made in 2019, they got N8 billion.
READ ALSO: University workers plan to begin indefinite strike February 5
Ngige explained that the Federal Government has so far kept faith with the agreement between it and ASUU.
He said: “We are keeping faith religiously with the implementation of the agreement. In fact, President Muhammadu Buhari has given ASUU members a waiver/ pardon on the no, work, no pay clause in the nation’s Trade Disputes Act.
“I had to write officially for the presidential waiver on payment of outstanding wages of varsity lecturers to strengthen our pact and more so we are in a COVID-19 pandemic era.
“So, for harmony and understanding, we decided on a compassionate ground not to invoke Section 43 of the nation’s Trade Disputes Act.”
Section 43 of the Act is in respect to “Special provision with respect to payment of wages during strikes and lock-outs.”
It says: “(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any other law-
(a) where any worker takes part in a strike, he shall not be entitled to any wages or other remuneration for the period of the strike, and any such period shall not count for the purpose of reckoning the period of continuous employment and all rights dependent on continuity of employment shall be prejudicially affected accordingly; and
(b) where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remuneration for the period of lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of the period of employment.
“(2) If any question should arise as to whether there has been a lock-out for the purposes of this section, the question shall on application to the Minister by the workers or their representatives be determined by the minister whose decision shall be final.”
Ngige said the Federal Government has started paying the outstanding salaries of the lecturers in a “staggered system” because every 31st December of each year, all outstanding recurrent budget (including personnel salaries) is mopped up into the Treasury.
“We paid ASUU members from January to June 2020. The salary arrears outstanding were from July to December and because of mop up into the Treasury, we decided to stagger the payment.
“So far, we have paid July and August salary arrears in December, we will pay September and October with their January salaries as one tranche in January; and November/ December in February alongside their monthly salaries since they have resumed in their offices and research centres.”
According to the reports, the N40 billion released is for both the academic and non-academic staff in the universities.
“The non-academic staff said they disagreed with the way the National Universities Commission (NUC) shared and transmitted the earned allowances by giving 75% to academic staff (lecturers) and 25% to them.
“The NUC came up with that sharing formula based on the past threshold. This administration has even improved the benchmark for the non-academic staff because the last time we had a similar challenge, it was based on 80% for academic staff and 20% for non-academic staff.
“In 2019, the non-academic staff got N8 billion as earned allowances but this time around, the government released N10 billion for their allowances.”
Notwithstanding, the Minister said: “I will invite the leaders of SSANU, NASU and technologists for dialogue to arrest their strike.
“I believe if we sit down with them for consultations, they will appreciate our position. We cannot afford to shut down our universities again.
“Their letter or notice of strike has not reached my table but we will engage them in dialogue on all their demands. Fortunately, I am one of the parents affected by strike action in universities. All my children are studying in different universities in the country,” Ngige said.
