By O.V Collins
The two months extension is with effect from Friday, 24 June 2022.
The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) on Tuesday extended their three-month old warning strike by another two months.
Recall that the Unions first commenced a two-week warning strike on Sunday, 27 March 2022, due to “the nonchalant attitude of the government” to their demands.
Upon the expiration of the two weeks, they extended the strike by another two weeks, stating that the strike was necessitated by the failure of the Nigerian Government to react to its earlier letter, threatening to commence an industrial action if its demands were not met.
The strike was then extended by one month in April and then renewed by another one month in May and is now being extended by an extra two months.
The unions under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) announced this extension in a circular, addressed to the branch chairmen and jointly signed by Peter Adeyemi, general secretary, NASU and Mohammed Ibrahim, national president, SSANU.
“We wish to thank all members of NASU and SSANU for their sustained compliance with the National directive on the ongoing strike action. The compliance of members, even in the face of the denials of our salaries, threats and harassments, has continued to give the national leadership the needed strength and focus to forge ahead on our demands.
“The success recorded by the JAC of NASU and SSANU over the payment of the Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustment arrears, which all staff in the University system benefitted, was only made possible by the resilience of our members. We note however, that we still have a few members across the Branches and from the Federal Universities of Agriculture who are yet to be paid. JAC is not resting on its oars and shall ensure these omissions are resolved.
“We have continued to follow up on the resolution reached with the Government at the Tripartite Plus meeting held on Thursday, 12th May 2022 with respect to the testing of our University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) software with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The three payment solutions- U3PS, UTAS and IPPIS, are currently being subjected to daily tests which have spanned three weeks so far and are still ongoing. While there has not been any final report, we are proud to inform you that our presentations have been very brilliant and impressive. We wish to also assure our members that the U3PS has been conceived to cater for ALL salary tables and allowances operational in the University system and there is no reason to fear exclusion by any group within the system.
“The negotiations with the Government team is ongoing even though at an exceedingly slow pace.
“We have also recorded success in the restoration of Responsibility Allowance to deserving members of NASU and SSANU, ditto, the correction of the payment of Hazard Allowance from N180,000 to 360,000 per annum to deserving members in the SSANU document. However, there has been no commitment of Government to pay the arrears of Earned Allowances being owed our members.
“In view of the fact that Government is still a long way from effectively resolving the issues in contention, it is only expedient that we allow the process to be fully concluded before directing the end of the strike. Consequently, you are hereby informed that the strike has been extended by two months, within which we are hoping that all the contentious issues would have been effectively laid to rest. The two months extension is with effect from Friday, 24 June 2022.
“We urge you to keep up the spirit across the Branches as we are slowly inching close to victory. We also urge you to disregard various rumors and misinformation especially on social media and rely on your National leaders who are ever willing to give factual and true information on the status of the strugglof
The union’s complaints with the Federal Government include inconsistencies in payment with Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), non-payment of earned allowances, non-payment of arrears of national minimum wage and its consequential adjustment.
Others are poor funding of state universities, delay in the renegotiation of the 2009 agreements, non-release of white paper on visitation panels, and non-payment of retirement benefits to members, among others.
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