Vows to resist wages reduction
DELIBERATION on the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement and funding of tertiary institutions would form the fulcrum of the national delegates’ conference of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), which begins in Abuja today.

The General Secretary of the union, Peters Adeyemi, said in Abuja at the weekend that other privatization of staff schools and earned allowances of NASU members would also dominate discussion at the conference.

He stated that NASU would put its members on red alert and mobilizes them towards resistance of any attempt by government to effect downward review of salaries.

He said: “We are going to use this conference to remind the All Progressive Congress-led Federal Government that their promise was to create jobs, not to kill jobs when they were campaigning. The workers will meet any decision by the government that goes contrary to this declaration with ferocious opposition.”

While berating the Federal Government over its refusal to honour the tenets of the Federal Government/Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (FGN/NASU) 2009 agreement, the NASU Scribe said government officials have wrong notions about negotiations.

His words: “In a nutshell, the agreement has not been faithfully implemented and nothing is happening now to show that government is interested in the full implementation of the 2009 agreement. Even the possibility of a re-negotiation seems not to be on the card of the government. But I must stress here that government has a misconception about negotiation. Let me explain this. Negotiation of agreement does not necessarily mean financial commitment.

In fact, during negotiation, government is presented with a new opportunity to explain the factors that are responsible for the non-implementation of the agreement. It is during that kind of a forum that the union will know all the facts and then decide knows what to report to its congress for decision to be made.

But staying away from negotiation table will only compound the problem because government has refused to create the platform for dialogue about its challenges.”

Adeyemi also mentioned the privatization of staff schools and non-payment of earned allowances as thorny issues that are causing disquiet in the education system.

“The earned allowance for staff in the university has not been addressed by government. The Federal Government was able to release the first tranche of about N4billion to offset the allowances following a prolong strike by all the unions in the universities. Since then, government has not released any money and this is generating serious crisis in the system.

Another issue is in dispute is that of staff schools in the campuses. The staffers in these schools were originally employed as university staffers. They were deployed in work in the staff schools but are generally staffers of the universities. Suddenly, government rescinded its position as contained in the agreement that it would continue to fund the staff schools because the staff schools are like demonstration schools. Government now wants to privatize the staff schools and the staff would now be paid a salary scale that is different from what is contained in their employment letters.

The other issue that is of utmost concern to us is the inadequate finding of education. The inadequate funding has led to the departure of our best brains in the universities and other institutions of tertiary education. Tied to this is the inadequate funding of research institutions and institutes also,” he said.

The NASU Scribe declared that non-payment of salaries is emerging as a threat to the existence of unions in the country.
He added: “I must also say that what is happening in the country has call the relevance of trade union to question. If government no longer guarantee payment of salaries and refuse to honour agreements thereby denying unions the opportunity to earn the respect of their members, it is indeed a hard time for trade union business in Nigeria.

When salaries are not paid, check-off dues cannot be deducted from workers salaries by unions. Trade unions also have limitations in the pursuit of the rights of workers because it spearhead popular struggle declare strikes but if employers refuse to bulge what do we do?”

Therefore, he stressed that the delegates’ conference will be taking critical appraisal of the union’s performance in the last four years and chart way forward.
“After the assessment, we would be able to identify out strong and weak point with a view to developing appropriate strategy on how to confront challenges facing us as a union. There are signals that Nigerian workers are going to face serious challenges in the next couple of years. So, this conference will come up with resolution and decisions on how we can collaborate with relevant unions within the higher tertiary education sector to ensure that government and other employers to react positively to issues that affect workers,” Adeyemi explained.

He highlighted that NASU will tighten its collaboration efforts with Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); relevant unions in the education and health sector and Public Service International (PSI) to ensure unions continue to be relevant as government roll out its policies.