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The Nationwide Industrial Court docket of Nigeria (NICN), on Monday, adjourned the swimsuit filed by the federal authorities difficult the continuing strike by the Tutorial Workers Union of Universities (ASUU).
The choose, P.I Hamman, adjourned the swimsuit till 16 September for additional point out.
At Monday’s proceedings, the Socio-Financial Rights and Accountability Venture (SERAP), sought to hitch the swimsuit as an celebration.
SERAP’s lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, mentioned his consumer had filed an analogous swimsuit asking the courtroom to compel the federal authorities to honour its 2009 settlement with the hanging varsity lecturers.
“We filed an analogous swimsuit on 8 September, asking the courtroom to compel the federal authorities to honour an settlement it willingly entered into with ASUU,” Mr Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) mentioned on Monday.
He primarily based SERAP’s joinder request on the necessity to forestall duplicity of outcomes regarding the industrial dispute.
However the federal authorities’s lawyer, Tijjani Gazali, additionally a SAN, opposed Mr Adegboruwa’s utility to consolidate the fits.
He instructed the choose that SERAP’s utility was “untimely” because the case was billed for point out on Monday.
Reacting to Messrs Adegboruwa and Gazali’s arguments, Femi Falana, one other SAN, who represents ASUU, mentioned he was conscious of efforts by the attorneys to file courtroom papers within the swimsuit on Monday.
Ruling
In his ruling on the SERAP’s joinder utility, the choose agreed with the federal authorities that the swimsuit was not ripe for consolidation.
Mr Hamman mentioned he was solely presiding as a trip choose because the case can be assigned to a different choose for full adjudication.
Thereafter, the choose ordered events within the swimsuit to file and change their written submissions, and adjourned the case till Friday, 16 September.
‘Govt’s swimsuit delay tactic’
Addressing journalists shortly after Monday’s proceedings, Mr Falana mentioned the Nigerian authorities typically adopts “dilatory ways which have a method of prolonging strikes.”
Mr Falana, in firm with ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke, and different officers of the hanging lecturers, referenced the resident docs’ dispute with the federal government final yr which resulted in a swimsuit on the NICN.
“They authorities is but to place its home so as. The federal government has not been in a position to make a case for the intervention of the courtroom, therefore the idea of adjournment.
“This isn’t the primary time the federal government has adopted this reasonably dilatory ways which have a method of prolonging strike.
“We had been right here final yr once you had the resident docs strike. It was the identical method. They (authorities) mentioned they (resident docs) received’t be paid, however on the finish of the day, authorities needed to pay them. And that’s what occurs on a regular basis.”
On his half, Mr Adegboruwa instructed journalists that the federal authorities had abdicated its accountability of funding public universities, necessitating the submitting of SERAP’s swimsuit.
Background
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the federal authorities sued ASUU over the lingering strike that saved Nigerian public universities shut since February.
The Nigerian authorities mentioned within the swimsuit that it needs the courtroom to find out the legality or in any other case of the strike.
It additional mentioned; “It requested the courtroom to interpret in its entirety the provisions of Part 18 LFN 2004, particularly because it applies to the cessation of strike as soon as a commerce dispute is apprehended by the Minister of Labour and Employment and conciliation is ongoing.”
The ministry additionally needs the courtroom to find out whether or not ASUU members are entitled to emoluments for the interval they’ve been on strike.
ASUU launched into an preliminary 4 weeks strike on 14 February, and has continued to increase it as talks with the federal government fail.
On 29 August, ASUU introduced an indefinite extension of the strike, accusing the federal government of insincerity.
Not like different university-based unions, ASUU refused the federal government’s plea to renew whereas the federal government labored on its calls for.
The Non-Tutorial Workers Union of Universities and different Related Establishments (NASU), Senior Workers Affiliation of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Nationwide Affiliation of Tutorial Technologists (NAAT) have all suspended the strike however with ultimatum issued to the federal government to fulfill their requests.
However the Nigerian authorities mentioned it needs the courtroom to adjudicate on the propriety or in any other case of the strike.
“It requested the courtroom to interpret in its entirety the provisions of Part 18 LFN 2004, particularly because it applies to the cessation of strike as soon as a commerce dispute is apprehended by the Minister of Labour and Employment and conciliation is ongoing,” an announcement from the Ministry of Labour mentioned on Sunday.
The federal government “requested an order of the Court docket for ASUU members to renew work of their numerous universities whereas the problems in dispute are being addressed by the NICN in consonance with the provisions of Part 18 (I) (b) of the TDA Cap T8. LFN 2004,” the assertion reads partially.”
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