SSANU kicks over withdrawal of staff school workers’ salaries

• Says union won’t stand maltreatment of members

The Federal Government’s circular on withdrawal of salaries of university staff schools workers’ salaries from the 2022 budget may cause another industrial crisis in universities.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) warned, yesterday, that the matter had been decided by the National Industrial Court and wondered why the Federal Government was stoking trouble.

“The union cannot sit and watch its members being maltreated,” it said, claiming that the stoppage would affect about 3,000 of its members.

The Federal Government, however, has assured that everything would be done to address the matter and ensure that it does not lead to crisis.

The President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim, accused the government of going contrary to the agreement with the union even when the court had given a judgment on the matter.

Ibrahim was reacting to the alleged circular from the Budget Office directing that teachers in staff schools should be removed from the Consolidated Salary Scale, CONTISS, in the 2022 budget

He said: “The issue is that we are also taken aback by the recent negative development that we just saw last week that the Federal Government through the Budget Office directed that universities should expunge or remove the list of our members who teach in the university demonstration schools, meaning that they shouldn’t be captured in the CONTISS salary table.

“The government is planning to put them in a different salary table called CONPISS, the consolidated public service salary scale.

“This is a negation of our agreement with the government, because those members of ours who are in the university demonstration schools are bonafide members of university staff, and they have their employment letters signed by the registrar’s of various universities, as approved by councils under the terms. And conditions for engagement is that they will operate and be paid based on the consolidated salary scale that is paid to all university staff.”