TheCable

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, has called on the striking education unions to give the federal government three months to meet their demands.

The Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated institutions (NASU) on Thursday announced the commencement of industrial action.

The unions based their decision on the federal government’s handling of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the sharing formula of the N40 billion earned academic allowances.

Commenting on the development on Friday, Ngige pleaded with the unions to give the government time to forward a supplementary budget to the national assembly.

Ngige noted that the unions have been engaged in dialogue to resolve the issues raised while appealing to them not to embark on the strike.

The minister said: “We will not claim ignorance of the fact that three unions in the University system, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT had given us notice of strike,” Ngige said.

“The first two unions SSANU and NASU did that under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee, JAC, and as government, we have moved to apprehend the strike because we just came out from a strike that lasted for nine months that was executed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

“So in consonance with the labour laws, we have apprehended both strikes. They gave us trade dispute notice, we scheduled meetings with them after apprehension, we held a meeting with NASU and SSANU last week Tuesday and government position was explained to them.”

The labour minister said it will be “preposterous and illegal” for the unions to go ahead with the planned strike despite an agreement for further negotiations.

He added that the move is “against the labour statute of both the International Labour Organization and the Nigeria Trade Dispute Act and we will frown at it if they ever go that route”.