TheCable

Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, says the federal government erred on its directive for public universities to stop salaries of lecturers who are on strike.  

The no-work no-pay rule was issued in reaction to the indefinite strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on November 5.

In a statement on Sunday, Falana said the salaries of the lecturers cannot be seized without due process.

He said: “I did argue that the directive could not be justified in law on the grounds that only the Governing Councils of the affected institutions are empowered by the relevant laws to subject the academic staff to any form of disciplinary action and that the salaries and allowances of striking lecturers could not be seized without due process.

“Apart from expressing disbelief over my position, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige has not challenged the decisions of the Supreme Court cited by me which have held that it is the exclusive powers of the Governing Council of every university to discipline lecturers whose employment enjoys statutory flavor.

“However, with magisterial authority, Dr. Ngige was reported to have said that until section 43 of the Trade Disputes Amendment Act which disentitles employees to payment of salaries and allowances  during strikes ‘is expunged or repealed through legislative process by the National Assembly, it remains not just applicable but a point of law for compliance by all citizens of Nigeria.’ It is curious to note that the Minister did not disclose that the Federal Government has always put the law aside in a bit to end strikes embarked upon by workers in the public service.

“In other words, a clause is usually inserted in collective agreements that employees who had taken part in an industrial action would not be damnified in any manner whatsoever and howsoever.  The practice was judicially endorsed in the case of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities v Federal Government of Nigeria (unreported suit no  NIC/8/2004 whose judgment was delivered on May 8, 2007)  where the National Industrial Court held  that ‘…it is perfectly lawful for an employer to choose to dispense with the ‘no work no pay’ rule.

“In other words, strike pay is lawful if an employer chooses to pay same and not to penalise the strikers in any other way for the strike. It is lawful for employees to agree with their employer that wages will be paid and no other detriment suffered even when strike actions are embarked upon.”

He added that the federal government has always entered into collective agreements with university lecturers to the effect that nobody would be victimised in any way whatsoever for his/her role in the process leading to these resolutions.

“The clause was inserted in the 1992, 2009 and 2013 Collective Agreements which were freely signed by the representatives of the federal and state governments as well as ASUU.  Hence, the “no work no pay” policy has always been put in abeyance to ensure the effective resolution of the subject matter of any industrial action embarked upon by the ASUU,” he said.

“Therefore, since the Federal Government has endorsed the payment of salaries and allowances of striking lecturers the controversial directive to the Vice Chancellors of all federal universities ought to be immediately withdrawn. More importantly, the federal and state governments should accelerate the ongoing negotiations between the authorities and the ASUU so that the striking lecturers can return to the classrooms as soon as possible.”

After initial deadlocks, the government on Thursday convened another meeting with ASUU over the ongoing strike.