Richard Ginika Izuora
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Tuesday, December 8, frowned at different positions being adopted by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) after last month agreement to end their strike before December 9.
Ngige made this disclosure via a statement titled: “We have kept our promises to ASUU-FG”.
The Minister explained the varsity lecturers agreed to suspend the eight-month industrial action during the meeting held on November 27 in Abuja.
Ngige, frowned at claims by ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, that the federal government has failed to meet the timelines on the offers made to the union, insisting that the timelines had been complied with and “faithfully implemented.”
Ngige said: “The truth of the matter is that a ‘gentleman agreement’ was reached at the last meeting in which ASUU agreed to call off the strike before December 9, 2020, and in turn, we agreed that once the strike is called off, we would get a presidential waiver for ASUU to be paid the remainder of their salaries on or before December 9.”
The minister also promised to consult his education counterpart on how to get a waiver on the “No Work, No Pay” clause in section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act.
He said it was unacceptable for ASUU to wrongly inform the public that the government agreed to pay all withheld salaries before its members would resume work; saying the government had complied with the timelines attached to the various offers made to the union.