By our Reporter
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has called on the Nigerian government to release the withheld four months salaries of its members due to strike.
The union queried the action behind the government’s insistence on the “no work, no pay policy,” saying the due process was followed before embarking on the strike that lasted four months.
It faulted the government for the failure to implement contents of agreements entered into with the workers’ unions, noting that the government lacks the moral right to punish union members for embarking on industrial actions after all entreaties must have failed.
After its Special National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday, SSANU in a communique issued lamented the non-payment of its members’ salaries across nine state-owned universities.
The communique, which was signed by SSANU National President, Mohammed Ibrahim, also condemned what it described as the constant harassment and intimidation of its members by some state governors and university authorities.
This year, industrial actions by Nigerian university workers grounded activities on public university campuses nationwide for eight months. SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and other Allied Institutions (NASU) lasted four months while members of their academic counterpart- the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were away from work for eight months.
The suspension of the industrial action by the Joint Action Committee of SSANU and NASU had followed an understanding with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who pledged, on behalf of the government, to fulfill the earlier agreements reached with the unions, among other commitments.
At the end of the Special NEC meeting on Thursday, SSANU urged the federal government to expedite the process of upholding its parts of the terms of the agreement upon which the strike action was suspended.
The statement reads in part; “The root cause of the recent industrial action embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU was the failure of the government in honouring previous Collective Bargaining Agreements entered into with the unions.
“NEC, therefore, requests the Government to rescind this decision of “No work, No pay” and release the withheld salaries of members of the Joint Action Committee of SSANU and NASU.”
The union commended its members “for their resilience in the midst of the hardship experienced during the last industrial action embarked upon by the union.”
SSANU condemned the
Actions of State Governors or even Vice-Chancellors to proscribe trade unions at the slightest provocation. The case of the proscription of trade unions at Bamidele Olumilua University of Education Science and Technology, Ikere, Ekiti and the actions of the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki in the state-owned Ambrose All University, Ekpoma, are vivid examples.