University teachers have presented six new conditions for
calling off their two-week old strike.
But
the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, yesterday pleaded with
the lecturers to embrace peace for the sake of innocent students.
The
Federal Executive Council (FEC) is to discuss today the demands of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and chart the way forward.
Some
of the options include:
·
bringing back ASUU to
the negotiation table;
·
allowing the Wale
Babalakin Panel to conclude its assignment;
·
suing ASUU to either
the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) or the National Industrial Court (NIC);
and
·
referring all issues
to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, in line with the Trade Dispute law.
According
to a source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, the six conditions
were not part of the previous demands referred to the Babalakin Committee
for arbitration.
The
new conditions are that:
·
the Federal Government
should immediately accept payment of shortfall in salaries of
universities;
·
universities to manage
their IGR the way they like and exemption from TSA;
·
exemption of Endowment
Funds, JV cash from TSA;
·
payment of University
Salary Scale to teachers in primary schools in universities;
·
release/implementation
of guidelines for the retirement of Professors in line with 2009 FG-ASUU
Agreement; and
·
waiver/ government
fiat to set up Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company
The
source said: “ASUU has brought proposals different from the agreement they
reached in the Senate with the Federal Ministry of Education.
“They
are asking the government to take over the shortfall in the salaries of
universities when there were glaring cases of abuse of recruitment process and
non-compliance with Integrated Personnel Payment Information System (IPPIS).
“They
want the government to accept liability for the shortfall in spite of the fact
that universities acted arbitrarily in increasing their wage bill.
“The lecturers have also asked the government to manage their
Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) henceforth instead of remitting such to the
Treasury Single Account (TSA) in line with their demand for autonomy for
universities.”
But,
according to the source, the government does not want to waive the TSA policy
for universities. It, however, expressed readiness to exempt Endowment
Funds and Joint Ventures Funds from TSA.
“In
their new demands, the lecturers asked for the issuance of a fiat to the
Pension Commission to register the Nigerian Universities Pension Management
Company.
“PENCOM
has expressed its readiness to register Nigerian Universities Pension
Management Company, if ASUU and other stakeholders can quickly address the
lapses already highlighted in the registration process. PENCOM is insisting
that the guidelines in the 2005 Pension Reforms Act must be fully complied
with,” the source said.
The
the government is said to be shocked by ASUU’s fresh request that the Federal
Government should pay University Salary Scale to primary school teachers in
varsity staff schools.
It
said: “They are saying that the staff school should be allowed to continue to
collect tuition fees.”
“The
government has a different approach to the staff school. Apart from retaining
its policy that primary education is free under the Universal Basic Education
(UBE) Scheme, the government is of the opinion that teachers in varsity schools
be either paid by the Universal Basic Education Commission(UBEC) or be placed
under the salary scale of the Federal Ministry of Education or Federal Salary
Scale,” the senior government official said.
“Another
demand from ASUU is the release of the guidelines for the retirement of
professors in line with 2009 Agreement.”
Responding
to a question, the source said: “We believe that ASUU is trying to be difficult
with the new conditions after the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu,
had conceded N23billion to pay earned allowances of the lecturers.
“The
ASUU strike will be tabled before the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on
Wednesday (today). The FEC will weigh options and chart the way forward.”
Contacted
last night, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige said: “They
have brought some proposals different from the demands we are already
addressing. I want ASUU to toe the path of peace for the sake of the innocent
students in our universities.
“I
am asking ASUU to know that this dispute is already apprehended by this
ministry. And when we apprehend a dispute, it is necessary for parties to come
for talks and consideration of issues.
“Going
by Section 3 of the Labour Dispute law, any further discussion on ASUU demands
should be done with the Federal Ministry of Labour.”
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