Federal Government, University Unions Meeting Ends In Deadlock

The meeting between the Federal Government and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), has ended in a deadlock.

It is the second meeting that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige is holding with the striking university workers, in an attempt to resolve the issues leading to the labour unrest in the universities.

At the beginning of the meeting, the minister criticised the two unions on their industrial actions which he described as illegal and unknown to labour laws.

Responding on behalf of the unions, General Secretary of NASU, Peter Adeyemi, said that the unions repose their confidence in him adding that the unions have supported the government and they should not be compensated with the denial of the rights of their members.

He asked the minister to explain how a sector could be given N40 billion and N10 billion was given to three unions while expecting them not to react.

The striking university workers said the government had failed to address their critical demands, which included unpaid earned allowances of members, delisting of members from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the arrears of the new minimum wage at the first meeting with the Federal Government which held last Tuesday.

The joint action committee of SSANU and NASU had on Friday last week directed all their members to down tools pending when these demands are met.