The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) says it will embark on a seven-day warning strike over alleged discrimination in the payment of four-month withheld salaries.
Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, the National President of SSANU, said this in a communiqué issued at the end of the union’s 47th Regular National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Monday in Abuja.
Ibrahim said that the four months of withheld salaries arose from the nationwide strike action embarked upon by all unions in the public universities in the country.
According to him, NEC had frowned at the latest action of the government, which excluded SSANU and other non-teaching university-based unions from the payment of the four-month withheld salaries.
“We strongly oppose this discriminatory practice, which we view as the government’s open invitation to an industrial crisis.
“Credible information available to us has it that the directive of Mr. President is for all university-based unions to be paid the four months’ salary.
“NEC, therefore, suspects saboteurs in this government bent on destabilising and destroying the good intent of Mr. President towards sustaining industrial peace in the university system.
“NEC therefore calls on the relevant authorities of government to immediately implement the directive of Mr. President by paying our members the four months withheld salaries,’’ he said.
Ibrahim said NEC had approved a one-week warning strike in conjunction with sister unions in the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) if the directive is not implemented.
He said NEC also called for the implementation of the 25 and 35 percent wage award by factoring it into the monthly salaries of its members and payment of the arrears arising therefrom.
“We demand this implementation before the renegotiation of the new national minimum wage, for which the government has already set up a committee.
“NEC also calls on the government to, as a matter of urgency, reconstitute a new committee for the renegotiation of the SSANU/FGN 2009 Agreement as the issue is long overdue.
“We are aware that the sum of N50 billion was appropriated in the 2023 budget for this purpose.
”NEC therefore calls on the government to, as a matter of urgency, release the already appropriated funds for the payment of earned allowances to our members to avert any industrial disharmony in the university system,’’ he said.
The SSANU president said that NEC had observed that 26 of its members were yet to be paid arrears of the National Minimum Wage, which was approved in 2018, despite the efforts of the union.
“NEC also strongly urged the government to immediately stem this odious tide by adequately funding the security agencies to enable the procurement of modern equipment to tackle issues of insurgencies.
“NEC in session observes with grave concern the sliding economy that is hardly witnessing any steady growth.
“It. therefore calls on the government to urgently arrest this terrible and unbearable situation by introducing sound economic policies aimed at revamping this critically dysfunctional economy before it degenerates to an irredeemable level,’’ he said.
Ibrahim added that the NEC, in session, noted with apprehension the systemic deterioration of the university system occasioned by the government’s deliberate serial neglect.
He, therefore, said that the government should increase funding for universities for effective service delivery.
He said that SSANU frowned at the delay by the government in appointing the governing councils of federal and state universities.
“NEC in session, therefore, calls on the government to urgently reconstitute dissolved governing councils of federal and some state universities to engender smooth administration of universities,’’ he said. (NAN)
