Non Academic Staff Union of Universities and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU will this week meet with Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige over looming strike action.
THE Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige on Sunday said that he will get a briefing from the Ministry of Education this week on the lingering crisis of the non-teaching staff unions of the university.
The two non academic staff Unions operating under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee,JAC, the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions, NASU and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU had threatened to embark on what they called “mother of strike’ if the Federal Government failed to address their grievances that led to the five days warning strike.
Chairman of JAC, Comrade Samson Ugwoke to Vanguard that the mother of all strike will include the shutting down of health facilities.
The demands of the Unions included the discrepancy in the sharing formula of the Earned Allowances where out of the N23 billion released by the federal government to the four university-based unions, the Academic Staff Union University, ASUU, allegedly cornered about 80 per cent of the total money, leaving about 20 per cent to the remaining three non teaching unions.
Also read: Muhammadu Buhari University: ASUU under fire for describing proposed institution ‘a joke’ NASU and SSANU also lamented the inability of the Federal Government to obey the judgment of the Industrial Court that ordered the reinstatement of sacked teachers of the Staff Schools and the failure of the government to resume renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement with the unions.
The non-teaching staff had given the government a 14-day ultimatum to address the contentious issues or they would proceed on strike. The inability of the government to address the matters led to the five days warning strike.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Ngige told Vanguard that he had directed the Labour Desk in the Ministry of Education to brief him on the development.
According to him, “I gave my workers instructions to get an education to brief us and we will take it up from there. It’s not all that a serious matter.
The labour desk office in the ministry of education will brief the Labour Ministry, me and the director in charge.
“They will brief me this week then I will swing into action, I have to do my work immediately to settle the matter.”
