The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of the Universities and Allied Institutions (NASU) restate their stance on February 5 ultimatum to the federal government.
This was disclosed by the NASU General Secretary, Peter Adeyemi, on Tuesday, after the meeting between Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige and the unions in Abuja.
Adeyemi said that the deadline remains active stating that they do not have the mandate to suspend the strike.
He reiterated that their critical demands were not discussed during the meeting, and they would brief their members on the discussion and announce their next action.
“Nothing has been concluded. We don’t have the mandate to talk about suspending the strike. That’s not within our competence. The mandate of our members stands until they ask us to reverse it,”
“We have not concluded the work. There are some issues that developed during the course of our discussions. We need to take back to our members so that they can give us a further directive.
“As a result of that development, we asked that the government should allow us time to meet our members and seek for a further mandate,” he said
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige told newsmen that the government responded to IPPIS issues, especially allowances cut off by the payment system and assured that reasonable progress has been made.
“We have put up a joint committee of the union, representatives from the Ministry of Education; Salary, Wages and Income Commission; Office of Accountant-General and the National Universities Commission to work hand-in-hand.”
The Minister said the team will ensure all the anomalies are treated to the satisfaction of all parties.
Recall that on the 22 January 2021, EDUCARE NEWS reported that the two unions issued a two weeks ultimatum, stating that all their chapters across all universities and inter-university centres would begin to strike on Friday, February 5.
Their demands include the fixing of inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), non-payment of arrears of minimum wage, poor funding of universities, NASU and SSANU 2009 agreement, among others.
