By our reporter| The Joint Action Committee of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), insists it will go ahead with the planned indefinite strike, expected to commence from Friday, February 5.
President of SSANU, Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, and the General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, made the disclosure shortly after a 4-hour closed-door meeting with the representatives of the federal government led by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Adeyemi who spoke to reporters on behalf of the varsity workers said they, as union leaders lacked powers to direct their members to suspend the action.
The strike is meant to press home their demands, bordering on alleged injustice on sharing formula of N40bn Earned Allowance and non-payment minimum wage arrears.
Other grievances harboured by the union are, inconsistencies in the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), delay in renegotiation of FG/NASU and SSANU 2009 agreement, non-payment of retirement benefits of outgone members among others.
“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”, Adeyemi said.
“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 further directive.
“As a result of that development, we asked that the government should allow us time to meet our members and seek for further mandate.
“Clearly, the agenda of the meeting has not been exhausted, so there are still issues to be addressed. In fact, one of the most contentious issues is yet to be discussed.
“We are favourably disposed to dialogue and after discussing with our members, we will come back and continue with the discussion. So far, nothing has been concluded.”
The minister of labour, Chris Ngige who led the government delegation, said progress was made during the meeting as a joint committee that would address all issues raised about IPPIS was set up and would work hand-in-hand to ensure that all the anomalies raised would be addressed.
According to him, the joint committee, included the Unions, members of the government side from the Ministry of Education; Salary, Wages and Income Commission; Office of Accountant-General and the National University Commission.
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