Education: NASU issues 14-day notice strike on the lack of payment of salaries for their members

Mr. Peters Adeyemi, Secretary-General of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Affiliated Institutions (NASU) declared in a statement in Abuja on Monday that they would commence a 14-day notice strike at Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education on the lack of payment of salaries for their members.

Adeyemi said that the non-teaching staff union was protesting the short-payment of its members’ salaries since February 2020 through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

According to Adeyemi, the association has filed the Trade Dispute Act CAP 432, Trade Disputes (Essential Services) Act, CAP 433 of the of the law of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 and Trade disputes (Amendment) Decree No 47 of 1992 otherwise called Form TD/3.

He said that NASU duly filed official complaints against the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation in its completed form TD/3, entitled 'Notification of Trade Disputes, Inter and Intra-Union Disputes by Employers/Workers Organization, among others.'

We raised issues in dispute, such as non-payment of salaries to certain staff, short payment of salaries to certain staff, failure to pay approved allowances as set out in the 2009 FGN / NASU Agreement.

Others include non-deduction of check-off payments and non-deduction of co-operative and other contributions from the members at Federal Universities and Inter-University Centers, Federal Polytechnics.

We have also stated in the petition that various steps aimed at resolving the crisis have failed, he said.

He, however, noted the steps so far taken to resolve the issue include, meeting of NASU leadership with the Director, IPPIS on Jan.21, 2020.

He said another meeting of NASU leadership with the same director was held on Feb. 4, 2020, which did not yield desired result.

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Adeyemi also said that a letter had been issued to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, declaring a trade dispute over IPPIS officials refusal to effect appropriate corrections of all the anomalies.

He said that in spite of the assurances given by the minister, the issues have continued to linger.

Adeyemi added that NASU members have continued to observe the anomalies in their salaries paid in February, March and April. He therefore said that NASU’s complaints as contained in its letter dated April 7, 2020, fell on deaf ears as none of it was addressed in the March salaries.

It is unfortunate that IPPIS has only betrayed the leadership of NASU by deceiving us into accepting that the IPPIS platform will take on board all the peculiarities affecting our members and that there will be no problem if we key into the platform.

Now we know better. IPPIS promises of doing a three-month experiment has become very disastrously and we are unable to allow this defective and deficient process to continue, he said.

Adeyemi stated that NASU had issued a notice of strike, having met with all the necessary specifications. The association also put all its members in the Federal Universities and Intra-University Centres, the Federal Polytechnics and the Federal Colleges of Education on a 14-day warning strike.

He added that the strike would take effect from the day of the resumption of work in all situations referred to above.

Adeyemi said that the strike notice has been conveyed to its members during the weekend through a letter with reference number NASU/CD/307/209.

He said the 14-day warning strike would be used to protest the refusal of IPPIS to react positively to issues that affect the correct payment of its members’ salaries and other errors identified which have been placed before the IPPIS for correction.

Meanwhile, Mr. Henshaw Ogubike, Director, Information, Press and Public Relations, OAGF, in a statement said that his attention has been drawn to series of reports on claims by tertiary institutions unions, over IPPIS deductions in their salaries, among others.

Ogubike said it was necessary to set the record straight for the good of the general public and the majority of the employees of tertiary institutions who have demonstrated exemplary comprehension and have cooperated with IPPIS to date.

This Office is not ignorant that the problems resulting from the transition of tertiary institutions to the IPPIS network is expected to emerge. This requires the cooperation and understanding of all tertiary institutions to enable us to make the necessary corrections as quickly as possible.

Upon conclusion of this process, the question of payment of subsequent arrears must be valid and practical in order to ensure that there is no overpayment or underpayment resulting from the payment, "he added.