FG insists on not paying lecturers for strike period
The federal government, on Thursday, restated that it will not accede to the demand of paying the backlog of salaries withheld over the ongoing strike
by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), saying it is meant to be the penalty for their needless action.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who stated this while appearing at the ministerial media briefing organised by the presidential communications team at the presidential villa, Abuja, on Thursday, insisted that not paying the backlog will deter others who may contemplate going on strike in the future.
He said the strike by the university-based unions came despite the trillions of naira expended on education by the present administration directly as well as by agencies such as TEFFUND and UBEC.
The minister informed that five of the university-based unions will likely call off their strike within the next one week while that of ASUU is not certain.
He stated that the government rejected ASUU’s demand to be paid the salary backlog because it believes that there have to be penalties for their action.
However, he noted that ASUU had begun consultations with their members to determine whether to call off their strike as well.
Adamu informed that the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) and the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) outscored the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) during the integrity tests conducted, affirming that ASUU ‘s peculiarities will be accommodated in whatever platform that may be adopted. He said the UTAS had not been approved by the government as had been speculated.
More details to come soon…
(Tribune)
