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Tag: JAC

  • NASU, SSANU ongoing strike extended by one month- JAC

    NASU, SSANU ongoing strike extended by one month- JAC

    The Joint Action Committee (JAC) has extended the ongoing strike by the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) by one month in protest against the non-implementation of their demands.

     

    The decision to extend the warning strike is contained in a circular dated April 21 and signed by the General Secretary of NASU, Prince Peters Adeyemi and National President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim.

     

    JAC said that it would take effect from today.

     

    The circular addressed to branch chairmen of NASU and SSANU in public universities, recalled that JAC had directed non-teaching staff on March 25 and April 8 to embark on industrial action to force the government to meet their demands.

     

    It reads: “Recall that the first warning strike for two weeks started on March 27th and extended for another two weeks on April 10th, which expire on midnight of Sunday, April 24th.

     

    “Unfortunately, the government has kept mute and remain indifferent to the demands of JAC of NASU and SSANU.”

     

    JAC disclosed that based on the feedback received from the various branches on the resolutions conducted, which backed the ongoing strike and other actions by the leadership, the strike has been extended by one month.

    According to JAC, the strike continues pending when the government would have a change of heart and be disposed to the unions demands.

     

    Adeyemi and Ibrahim revealed that the list of NASU and SSANU demands was presented to representative of Minister of Labour and Employment on March 1st and March 10th, 2022.

     

    The implication of the extended warning strike meant that academic and administrative activities would be further crippled in the Nigerian university system.

     

    Already, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) recently rolled-over its ongoing strike by eight weeks.

     

    It would be recalled that on Friday, April 24, the NASU leadership staged a walk out on the Federal Government negotiation team.

  • FG berates ASUU over strike

    FG berates ASUU over strike

    “You are being mean. There is no point in disrupting everybody’s life because you have not got your money,” said the Minister of State for Education, Mr Emeka Nwajiuba, to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over ongoing strike.

     

    He stated his position on the ASUU strike in an interview, explaining that the government had no money to fund the union’s requests at a go as the sale of petroleum had dropped drastically in the country.

     

    He wondered if the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) could bear with the Federal Government over non meeting to their demands, why would ASUU not do likewise.

     

    Nwajiuba said it is selfish for the ASUU to shut down the universities since they are not the only ones that have demands.

     

    Berating ASUU, Nwajiuba stated, “The issue is not whether they are right or wrong.

     

    “What we’ve consistently said is government and the people of Nigeria will continue to look into the matter because if you disrupt academic sessions because of one entitlement, you would eventually get the entitlement, but we would have lost the time our children would have used in learning.”

     

    “The 2.2 million children we have in tertiary institutions who are in the universities and other tertiary institutions, and the nearly 100,000 lecturers, that work with them are a very important segment of our workforce.

     

    “But then, they are not the only people in Nigeria. There are unionists in so many different parts. All we manage to sell after banditry attacks is just less than 1,000 barrels of oil in a day. When the money comes in, it is that money we are going to use to pay the police, Man O’ War, and all the civil defence groups and other organisations in Nigeria.

     

    “It is that same money we are going to use in paying secondary school teachers. To build infrastructure, the government just goes around begging China, begging this, begging that. But to pay salary, we have to sell this little crude oil in order to keep the lives of 200-so million lives running.

     

    “You can see what the Ministry of Finance is doing. It gave N50bn, N20bn. We don’t have N200bn in the coffers at a go. When the last President (Goodluck Jonathan) signed the agreement, he thought he might have the money. The government can’t be managed like that: The government will not be robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

     

    The minister also defended the decision of the Federal Government to establish more universities, saying it was part of efforts to increase access to university education.

     

    He stated, “What we have done is to at least expand access. And while we are using the resources that are available to us to improve human capacity to be able to run because those are the two things needed; buildings are not the universities. It is content that makes the universities. So as long as we keep developing human capacity around them, we will ensure we give access to our people in millions.”

     

    According to him, government licensed 20 universities last year; another 12 this year.

     

    “It is our belief that Nigeria is still below 250 universities for 250 million people,” he added.

     

    He said no fewer than 1.5 million candidates write Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination every year, out of which only 600,000 are admitted.

     

    Nwajiuba, also, took a swipe at the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions for also going on strike.

     

    Two weeks ago, SSANU and NASU began a two-week warning strike.

     

    Among others, JAC is demanding payment of earned allowances. It also faulted the usurpation of non-academic career positions by vice-chancellors.

     

    JAC on Friday also extended its strike by another two weeks. ASUU, which began its strike on February 14, accused the government of poor commitment to the payment of the academic earned allowance, among others.

     

    According to Nwajiuba, there was no point in the unions disrupting the lives of students because of money that they would eventually be paid.

     

    The minister stated that the workers were still receiving their salaries despite their refusal to call off the strikes.

     

    While reacting to Nwajiuba’s allegations, National President- ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, faulted the claim that the government had no money.

     

    He stated, “They (government) have money to pay him all his allowances. They have money to feed students for the so-called N250bn a year and I have not seen students who said they were fed. They have money to construct the second runway of the presidential wing of the airport but they don’t have money for education.

     

    “Nigeria has money to be used to pay school fees every year in foreign countries but we don’t have N200bn to use in our country.

     

    “Tell him if that is what he wants, they should close all the universities, till when money comes.”

     

    Osodeke added that the plan of the government and the elite was to devalue the government tertiary institutions so that every Nigerian would be forced to attend private institutions.

     

    He emphasised that the government could afford to turn a deaf ear to the unions’ requests because politicians’ children were not schooling in Nigeria.

     

    “Do we still have public primary and secondary education? They have killed them. That is what they want to do to universities. If we give up this fight, you will be surprised that in the next two years, Nwajiuba will have a university.”

     

    “Their children are not in this country and they have nothing at stake. They are not interested. If they have their children in this country, they will not tell you there is no money for education.”

  • Universities workers point out problems with IPPIS, threaten fresh strike

    …FG reacts, directs universities bursars to take action

    Universities workers have pointed out the problems they are having with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), threatening to embark on a total and indefinite strike if the issues were not resolved.

    It would be recalled that the Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU), has threatened to embark on strike over problems associated with the payment of salary through the IPPIS platform.

    The non teaching staff has also issued a 14-day ultimatum to the government to correct all the problems associated with the IPPIS and the release of their Earned Allowances before the easing of the lockdown, otherwise its members will not resume duty when schools resume.

    Mr Samson Ugwoke, Chairman of JAC and President of SSANU, in a telephone interview, said that non teaching staff of universities have been passing through hardship since they enrolled into the IPPIS platform.

    Ugwoke noted that in the past four months, members have not received full salaries, while deductions made for the servicing of bank loans which members took have not been remitted to the banks and cooperative societies.

    “Since the inception of the IPPIS contrary to what the platform is supposed to be, what we were told and what we believed before we accepted the platform.

    “SSANU members and the non teaching staff in the universities have not received complete salaries.

    “From January 2020 till date, we have not received full salaries and since that time till now, no pay slip has been released by IPPIS to the universities. So all that our members have received as net pay is what IPPIS wants to give us.

    “It’s that worse because if you have your pay slip, you will know what are the deductions made from your salary.

    “Up till now, the other deductions that are meant for our members and their welfare are being withheld by the IPPIS and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

    “They deducted tax and paid to the Federal Government, they deducted welfare money, they deducted cooperative society funds, deducted loans and withheld it since that time, ” he said.

    He said that the implication was that salaries have not been paid in full since the inception of the IPPIS.

    He said that some members were indebted to cooperative societies, banks, among others, by agreement reached with the organisations, the repayments are made monthly.

    He added that the accumulating interests are compounding the problem on members.

    Ugwoke noted that other issues affecting the non teaching staff include the earned allowances, payment of benefits, pension of retired members, retirement age, among others.

    “We have written to the Minister of Labour and Employment, we are yet to get a reply even though they are talking about calling us for a meeting.

    “But we insist, you do not need to call a meeting to pay us full salary or release pay slips. We have made it clear to the minister that they should do the needful.

    “We have also made it very clear that if all these things are not addressed, any time the universities are going to reopen after the lockdown, we are going to embark on total strike.

    “We have written to notify them that we will commence a 14-day warning strike in the first instance and thereafter it will be total and indefinite,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has said his ministry had received the strike notice from the non teaching staff unions in the universities and was making efforts to meet with the leaderships of the unions.

    He said the federal government has directed bursars of universities to compile a list of problems associated with payment of salaries through the IPPIS.

    Ngige, who made this known while addressing newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, said the federal government was in touch with bursars of universities to compile all the problems associated with the payment of salaries through the IPPIS platform so that they could be addressed.

    “We are on top of the situation, we have received their letter. Their letter borders on shortcomings of the IPPIS system and I have spoken with the Finance Minister and the Accountant General of the Federation.

    “They said that they are in touch with the university bursars to correct certain peculiarities and send back to them to treat.

    “However, it’s important to point out that one of the shortcomings which the university workers pointed out is that the IPPIS is over taxing them.

    “They also said that the IPPIS skipped some of their people who have taken leave of absence. These are matters that can be easily adjusted.

    “The IPPIS office informed me that immediately the lockdown is over, the bursars are to come up, but before then that they should by e-system try to give them additional information on some of those shortcomings and that they will try as much as possible to correct them.

    “We have equally gone out to the unions and asked them that we want to meet with them and the IPPIS; so we are trying to see if we can arrange a special pass so that their leaders could come up here and we would have the meeting,” he said.

    Ngige said since Zoom meeting would not be able to correct some of the problems, the government had decided to have a physical meeting as soon as possible.

    He said that his office was planning to apply for special pass from the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 for a physical meeting with the unions to thrash out all the contentious issues.

  • Unionism: Bello bans activities of NLC, SSANU, NASU, ASUP, others in Kogi institutions

    Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Wednesday announced the ban on the activities of Joint Action Committee (JAC) of trade unions and all forms of trade unionism in state-owned tertiary institutions.

    Bello, who made the announcement in a broadcast in Lokoja on Wednesday accused trade unionism in tertiary institutions of impeding government holistic reforms.

    He said he had respect for the rights of all citizens to responsibly associate and pursue their welfare within the ambits of the law and norms of a democratic society.

    The governor said his administration had made tremendous progress in resolving all issues relating to adequacy and frequency of remuneration for all categories of Civil Servants in the State.

    He reiterated his respect for the rights of labour unions in relations to the responsibilities of the owners and proprietors of tertiary academic institutions.

    Bello, however, regretted that the state-owned tertiary institutions’ trade unionism had let itself to impeding government’s efforts to carry out “holistic reforms in the civil service through its unjustified industrial actions.

    “The branch of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) in Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, has proceeded on yet another strike for alleged non-payment of salaries and emoluments irrespective of clear evidence of government’s good faith and efforts contradicting JAC’s position,” he said.

    The governor said there was evidence of massive embezzlement at Kogi State Polytechnic’s earnings in excess of N157m committed under JAC’s nose.

    Bello assured that his government remained committed to meeting its obligations to all genuine employees of the state as promptly as available resources would permit.

    “Government will work to ensure uninterrupted academic calendar, henceforth, in all basic education, secondary and tertiary academic institutions in Kogi State.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, and except where specified otherwise, references herein to the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Trade Unions of Tertiary Institutions owned by Kogi State are referred to:

    “The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU). The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). The Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU). The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and The Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (SSUCOEN).

    “Others are the National Associations of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and any other Union operating in any tertiary Institutions owned by the Kogi State Government,” he said.

     

    NAN