*You can only be paid for work done, FG insists.
The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke on Tuesday described the Minister for Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige as an "interloper," who has lost his right to mediate in the union's industrial dispute with the Nigerian Government for taking the matter to the Industrial Court.
Speaking on the Channels Television program, "Politics Today," Osodeke said, "He (Ngige) has gone to court, which means he has lost his right as a conciliator. Once he has taken this case to the Industrial Court, he has lost that right as a conciliator; he has no said again, but he’s still interloping.”
The ASUU president further stated that the matter has gone beyond the Labour minister, “He has nothing. He’s an interloper. If we’re calling him a conciliator, it has gone beyond him, Osodeke stated.
He noted that the union was surprised that the Labour minister has taken the matter so personally that he wrote a letter himself to the Finance Minister asking for ASUU members' salaries to be stopped.
"And we have found that it was he who wrote to the Minister of Finance personally, not directed, that they should stop our salary. It’s just personal. We are surprised because, having taken the case to court, by all rights, his hands are tied. He has no business with what we do.”
Image: Channels TV
“But to our surprise, the Accountant General Office decided to pay what some people have referred to as half. It’s very sad because professors who are on the same salary scale got varying amounts, N200,000, N180,000, N90,000, and what have you,” he said.
Professor Osodeke questioned the propriety of the directive to pay part salary to the lecturers coming from the Labour minister instead of the ministry of education which is their supervisory ministry.
“The question we need to ask ourselves is, can a Minister of Labour direct the Minister of Finance on what to do? The answer is no. We are under the Ministry of Education, and we thought that anybody that can give such a directive who monitors what we do through the NUC is the Minister of Education.
"It is the Minister of Education, who we are under, and the Speaker on whose intervention we called off the strike because of the issue we said that one, they are going to pay us backlog of our salaries because ASUU is different from another union,” he said.
While confirming that the part payment for October was the first salary paid to the lecturers since the strike began, he expressed hope that ASUU's demands will be resolved in the interest of students, parents, and the country.
No bias in pro-rata payment says the FG
Image:The Punch.
However, the Federal Government has insisted that the pro-rata October salary paid to ASUU members is in order, as the lecturers can only be paid for work done.
In a statement, the spokesman for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun denied that the government was biased in paying the university teachers.
“They were paid in pro-rata to the number of days that they worked in October, counting from the day that they suspended their industrial action,” the statement partly read.
“Pro-rata was done because you cannot pay them for work not done. Everybody’s hands are tied,” Oshundun stated.
No work no pay is lawful
For his part, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila said the ‘no work no pay’ policy adopted by the Federal Government is legal and based on the government’s legitimate interest in preventing moral hazard and discouraging industrial actions that disrupt academic activities.
No plans to make lecturers casual workers
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, while briefing reporters on Wednesday, at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja also denied ASUU's claim that the government is indirectly turning lecturers into casual workers by paying them part salaries.
“Nobody can make University lecturers casual workers,” the education minister said.
Image: Vanguard.
Adamu said he was not aware of threats by the lecturers to call a one-day protest over the government’s action and refused to comment on the agreement reached between the government and ASUU.
However, a source in the Ministry of Education told Vanguard that there seems to be no agreement with the government before ASUU called off its strike since they were ordered back to classes by the Industrial Court.
The source said, “I do know that the government agreed with the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) before they suspended their strike, but I am not sure that there was an agreement with ASUU.
“Remember that ASUU only called off the eight months strike because of the court judgment,” disclosed the source.
ASUU began its strike action on February 14, 2022, and called it off after eight months on October 14, 2022.
The union said its decision was in deference to the decision by the National Industrial Court ordering the ASUU back to work before its pending case could be heard and in consideration of pleas by some well-meaning citizens including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Following that, the federal government paid the lecturers part of their October salaries drawing anger from the academics and causing them to declare protests and work-free days in the various public universities across the country.
Education
Comments