After a 7-hour negotiating meeting between the delegation of the federal government and members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the FG has agreed to pay university lecturers their outstanding salaries using the old salary payment platform.
Reading out the communique at the end of a seven-hour negotiation with ASUU members in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the government also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay their members’ salary arrears from February to June through the old salary payment platform, Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System.
Ngige said that government has also offered to increase the Earned Academic Allowances to university staff from N30 billion to N35 billion or N40 billion and revitalization fund from N20 billion to N25 billion.
He stated, “We are also reviewing how the lecturers will be paid on the old platform until UTAS is ready for usage.
The minister added, “The meeting agreed that the Federal Ministry of Education and that of Labour and Employment will look into issue of ‘No work, No pay’ as stipulated in Section 43 of the Trade Union Disputes Act, Cap 18 laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 with a view to getting approval for the withheld salaries to be paid.
“This is a transition period between the formalization of UTAS, and as soon as we finish this, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the National Universities Commission and the Vice Chancellors are to work together to make sure that the withheld salaries are paid through the old platform, which the Accountant General’s office used in paying the salaries of university workers that were not captured on IPPIs for the months of February, March, April, May and June.”
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said the union had received the new proposals by the federal government and that it will go and consult with its organs before taking a position.
He said, “I don’t really have much to say as the minister had said it all. Government has given us offers and we have promised to go back to our organs to brief them and then come back to government. We acknowledge that progress has been made.”
He reiterated that ASUU would need till next week to allow state chapters to discuss the offer made by the federal government. The meeting was therefore adjourned till next week, Friday.
This agreement is expected to end the eight-month strike embarked on by the university lecturers.
