SSANU, NASU subject one week ultimatum, threaten strike

The Joint Motion Committee (JAC) of the Non-Educational Workers Union of Instructional and Related Establishments (NASU) and the Senior Workers Affiliation of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has issued a one-week ultimatum for the Nigerian authorities to pay the unions’ members’ withheld salaries or threat an industrial motion.

In an announcement collectively signed by SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, the employees requested the federal government to pay the withheld salaries like their educational counterparts who have been paid 4 months out of the months owed.

JAC mentioned it has written protest letters to the Chief of Workers to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, over the exclusion of the non-academic workers when the federal government determined to pay a part of the withheld salaries however that the letters weren’t responded to 2 weeks it was submitted.

“We due to this fact use this chance as soon as once more to name on the federal authorities to do the needful inside the subsequent seven days because the Joint Motion Committee of NASU and SSANU shouldn’t be held accountable ought to the wheel of administration and company governance be grounded to a halt within the college sector, as we now have exercised sufficient persistence,” a part of the assertion reads.

The assertion added: “If nothing is finished by the federal authorities to positively handle this case and reply to our earlier letters to them, the members of the 2 unions could also be compelled to fulfill quickly to take all lawful and stringent selections on the matter.”

JAC mentioned it has carried out every part potential inside its energy to prevail on their members to keep up industrial peace and tranquillity.

“Whereas we admire the Federal Authorities for paying our educational counterpart, we additionally deem it vital that our members are additionally paid,” the assertion mentioned, including that the unions can not assure industrial concord on the campuses ought to the federal government fail to pay them.

Withheld Salaries

In 2022, two months after ASUU commenced nationwide strike, each SSANU and NASU additionally launched into nationwide industrial motion that additional crippled actions throughout the campuses.

The motion was to protest the federal government’s failure to satisfy its guarantees to the employees and what they described as gross underfunding of the schools.

On the time, the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay’ coverage and withheld the employees’ salaries.

The Nationwide Affiliation of Educational Technologists (NAAT) additionally took half within the strike on the time.

SSANU queried the rationale behind the federal government’s insistence on the “no work, no pay coverage,” saying the due course of was adopted earlier than embarking on the strike that lasted 4 months. Until the top of his tenure, Mr Buhari by no means authorised the cost of the employees.

Selective cost

Nevertheless, in October, Mr Tinubu introduced that his authorities would pay 4 months of the withheld salaries to members of ASUU, instantly elevating considerations as to the destiny of the members of the opposite unions.

The Nationwide Vice President of SSANU, Abdussobur Salaam, advised this newspaper on the time that the directive gave the impression to be selective in favour of a single union out of others whose members’ salaries have been withheld.

He mentioned the president’s directive if not reviewed to incorporate SSANU and different unions may very well be a recipe for catastrophe as he threatened one other spherical of strikes if SSANU members’ withheld salaries weren’t paid alongside that of ASUU.

“The directive seems to be misdirected as a result of all college unions went on strike final 12 months and never ASUU alone. To that extent, that directive can’t be selective in favour of a single union however can solely be common,” Mr Salaam mentioned in October.

Some days in the past, the Nigerian authorities started paying the lecturers, leaving out the non-academic workers.

“If nothing is finished by the federal authorities to positively handle this case and reply to our earlier letters to them, the members of the 2 unions could also be compelled to fulfill quickly to take all lawful and stringent selections on the matter,” JAC mentioned.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Instances in partnership with Report for the World, which matches native newsrooms with proficient rising journalists to report on under-covered points across the globe