Industrial peace and harmony may, once again, be breached in the university system, as the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) may embark on another strike.
President of the union, Hassan Makolo, and the General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, gave the indication, in Abuja, during a meeting of NASU branch chairmen in the universities and inter-university centres, yesterday.
Adeyemi, who decried alleged maltreatment of non-teaching staff by the government, queried the Federal Government’s decision to offset a part of the withheld salaries of the teaching staff and chose to be silent on the salaries of non-teaching and inter-university centres’ staff.
The NASU scribe said: “Both SSANU and NASU operate under a Joint Action Council (JAC). It is under this umbrella that both unions will declare a definite date for the strike.
“We, therefore, through this medium, call on the Federal Government to offset the outstanding four months of university non-teaching and inter-university centres. The JAC of both unions will meet next week to determine the actual date the action will commence, if the government fails to do the needful.”
According to Adeyemi, the payment could be made within the next four days, if the government is willing to ensure the continuation of industrial peace in the university sector.
On a positive note is the decision of the Federal Government to exit tertiary institutions from the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Adeyemi noted that though taking the salaries of tertiary institutions away from IPPIS was laudable, NASU would continue to take steps to ensure that its members were not shortchanged under the new system they might be taken to.
However, the Federal Government has yet to say whether it will migrate the salaries of workers in tertiary institutions back to the Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS), create a new payment system or choose one of the platforms created by ASUU or NASU/SSANU.
Justifying its members’ demand for arrears, Adeyemi said before embarking on the action, NASU followed all laid down rules that prescribe what must be done first before declaring an industrial action.
He insisted that the union had always demonstrated good faith with the governor by negotiating and then wondered why the government chose to maltreat a union that had consistently shown understanding during labour disputes.
