Varsity staff say no going back on planned industrial action

Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities have insisted that there is no going back on the February 5 date which they said they would commence the nationwide industrial action.

Their decision is despite the conciliation meeting convened by the Minister of Labour and Employment in Abuja on Tuesday to stop the non-teaching staff of the universities from embarking on the strike.

Although the minister told journalists after the meeting that most issues raised by the unions have been addressed, leaders of the unions insist that most of their critical demands are yet to be attended to.

The striking non-teaching staff are demanding that their members be taken off the government’s Integrated Personnel Payroll Information (IPPIS).

They are also calling for a review of the sharing formula for the universities earned allowances between the teaching and non-teaching staff.

The strike is expected to commence on Friday, February 5.

“The joint action committee of SSANU and NASU hereby resolves as follows: That members of NASU/SSANU shall embark on an indefinite, comprehensive and total strike with effect from February 5, 2021,” the spokesperson of the joint action committee of SSANU and NASU, Peters Adeyemi, had said last Friday.

“Two weeks’ notice effective from today, Friday, January 22, 2021, is hereby given to the government and relevant stakeholders of this development.

“The October 2020 memorandum of understanding (MOU) resolved that the compliance of SSANU/NASU with respect to IPPIS would be corrected within two weeks.

“But three months after, there has been no correction of these anomalies leading to a high level of restiveness among our members who have been short-changed on account of the problem caused by IPPIS.” (Channels TV)