Strike: Varsity non-teaching staff unions meet on Friday
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By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
NON-teaching staff unions in the universities under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee, JAC, will be holding a crucial meeting on Friday over the recent disparity in the sharing formula of the N40 billion Earned Allowances released by the Federal Government to the four university-based unions.
Also part of the agenda at the meeting will be the problem associated with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, the non-implementation of the October 2020 Memorandum of Understanding, MoU between the member unions and government as well as the non-payment of outstanding allowances to members.
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THE year 2020 will go down in history as recording one of the longest of all strike actions embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria. ASUU had commenced the strike on March 9, 2020 which was suspended on December 23, 2020.
Accordingly, the strike is likely to be resumed in 2021 going by the trust issues between the Federal Government mediation team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and the representatives of ASUU led by its president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, on some contending issues.
Several meetings were held by both parties coupled with the interventions of President Muhammadu Buhari at a point and the National Assembly, yet it appears there is no permanent end in sight in what Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s legendary president, would describe as “pernicious British-style trade union practices”.
Varsity workers kick as ASUU suspends strike thenationonlineng.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenationonlineng.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Experts observed that in the event the non-academic members of the university community decide to go on strike, they would make the agreement between ASUU and the government a wasted effort.
ASUU had since the return of democracy in 1999 expended four years on strike, an equivalent of one term for an elected president or governor.
Prof Biodun Ogunyemi
Under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the union had ‘wasted’ 58 weeks on strike, meaning they had been at home for about 15 months.
The union had spent four weeks in 2017 and 13 weeks in 2018; while 2020 witnessed the longest- 41 weeks and 3 days.
Parents and students who expressed joy over yesterday’s development called on ASUU and the federal government to respect the terms of the agreement that led to the suspension of the strike to avert another round of strike.
Nigeria: ASUU Wasted 58 Weeks On Strike Under Buhari allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.