Get Guardian on GoogleHealthcare professionals in federal universities have given the national leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) 14 days to address their alleged exclusion from the payment of the Consolidated Non-Teaching Tools Allowance (CONTTA) arrears or face legal action.
The affected workers, operating under the Coalition of Healthcare Professionals in Tertiary Education Institutions in Nigeria (CHPTEIN), said they served a 21-day statutory pre-action notice on the unions on October 26, 2026.
In a statement issued on Monday, the coalition said its members had entered the second week of the notice and would institute a representative class-action suit at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria if the unions failed to address their grievances before November 16.
The workers alleged that thousands of clinical, nursing, laboratory, pharmaceutical and allied healthcare professionals across federal universities had been excluded from the CONTTA payments despite being financial members of SSANU and NASU.
They attributed the exclusion to the position of some university administrations and bursary departments that healthcare professionals operating under the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) and Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) were not covered by the allowance, which was based on the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS).
However, CHPTEIN said a Federal Ministry of Education circular dated October 16, 2026, had clarified that the allowance covered all non-teaching staff, irrespective of their union affiliations.
The circular, with reference number FME/TE/SS.IM/C./Vol.I/6, was signed by the Director Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary.
Quoting paragraph two of the circular, the coalition said, “The Budget Office of the Federation calculated the financial implications of CONTTA based on the entire workforce of the Non-teaching staff on the payroll. Accordingly, the funds released to the Federal Universities are intended to cover the payment of allowances of all Non-teaching staff irrespective of their union affiliation.”
It added that paragraph five of the circular warned that vice-chancellors and other chief executives of federal universities who failed to comply with the agreement could face administrative sanctions.
The coalition further claimed that at least 13 universities, including the University of Ibadan, the University of Port Harcourt and the University of Abuja, had mapped CONHESS and CONMESS salary grades to their CONTISS equivalents and paid their healthcare workers.
It described the development as evidence that the payment could be implemented without compelling healthcare professionals to abandon their existing salary structures.
The workers also accused some university bursars of pressuring healthcare professionals to migrate from CONHESS and CONMESS to CONTISS as a condition for receiving their allowances.
They maintained that university bursary departments had no statutory authority to alter federally approved salary classifications.
CHPTEIN also faulted the national leadership of SSANU and NASU for allegedly failing to protect healthcare professionals whose check-off dues contributed to the unions’ collective bargaining activities.
The coalition said, “The health workers strongly condemn the institutional silence of national SSANU and NASU executives, who used the collective bargaining strength and check-off dues of health workers to negotiate this allowance, only to abandon them during disbursement.”
Among its demands, the coalition called on the unions to publish a joint disclaimer in at least two widely circulated newspapers affirming that university healthcare professionals were entitled to CONTTA payments, irrespective of their salary structures.
It also urged the unions to issue a binding memorandum to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and the Association of University Bursars, directing them to stop pressuring health workers to migrate to CONTISS as a condition for payment.
The workers further demanded that the unions direct their local branch chairmen to file administrative grievances and declare trade disputes at universities where the allowances were being withheld.
The coalition said failure by SSANU and NASU to meet the demands before November 16 would trigger legal proceedings at the National Industrial Court.
It disclosed that it would seek a refund of all union dues deducted from the affected workers’ salaries during the period of the alleged exclusion, alongside mandatory court orders compelling the universities to undertake the necessary payroll mapping and release the outstanding allowances.
The workers said their legal action would be based on what they described as a breach of the unions’ statutory duty of fair representation.
They warned that the dispute would not be allowed to remain unresolved, insisting that healthcare professionals should not be denied benefits negotiated through their union membership.
