The Federal Government has four weeks to resolve the ongoing industrial dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or face nationwide industrial action, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened.

Speaking after the organ meeting of the congress, President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, said the congress is determined to end frequent industrial squabbles in the education sector.

His words: “We have decided to give the Federal Government four weeks to conclude all negotiations in this sector.

They have started talks with us, but the problem in this sector goes beyond the academic staff union alone. All the other unions are also involved. If after four weeks, this negotiation is not concluded, the organs of the NLC will meet and take a nationwide action that will involve workers in the country. All the unions in the country will be involved so that we get to the root of all this. The era of signing agreements and threatening the unions involved has come to an end.”

He added that Congress has established a framework for engagement towards the implementation of the outstanding 2009 agreement towards sustainable funding of education.

“The NLC, after extensive deliberation with the unions in the tertiary institutions on finding solutions to the perennial problems in that sector, has resolved at the level of the NLC to work with the unions to make sure that we are able to find a lasting solution to the problems that they have been facing all these years,” he stated.

The four unions in the federal universities – ASUU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) – have been in a running battle with the Federal Government over the non-implementation of the agreement.

Another twin issue that is in dispute between the government and NASU, SSANU and NAAT is the disbursement of N50 billion earned allowance that was unevenly shared among the teaching and non-teaching unions.

The second issue is the withheld two months’ salaries of NASU, NAAT and SSANU over industrial action which was allegedly foisted on them by the Federal Government.

Ajaero also announced the end to engaging with government officials who have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the government, saying sending junior officials to the negotiating table is hugely responsible for the non-implementation of agreements.

He said: “We discovered that those government officials sent to meetings go there without mandates. Henceforth, the trade unions, either in the tertiary institutions or anywhere, will not go into any meeting with government representatives who do not have mandates. That is what is at the point of this crisis. You go and face a negotiation, you sign an agreement, and then you go back without achieving anything. Never again. Agreements are sacrosanct.”

While faulting the work, no pay instance of the Federal Government, the spirit of ‘no pay, no work’ must be acceptable to the same government.

He said: “On one issue of the so-called policy of no work, no pay, you can’t benefit from an action you instigated. We have discovered that 90 per cent of strike actions in this country are caused by failure to obey agreements. You can’t refuse to obey agreements, and you punish the other party. So it is a problem of cause and effect. So the person who caused the problem will be ready to bear the consequences. You can’t beat a child and ask the child not to cry.”