There’s the likelihood of another strike as lecturers show dissatisfaction over receiving partial salaries after the just concluded eight-month industrial exercise.
According to multiple reports, officials of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are currently in an important meeting.
ASUU called this emergency NEC meeting in response to the federal government’s payment of half salaries to lecturers.
According to a statement made by EIE Nigeria on Twitter, the branch at the University of Jos has decided that lecturers should stay at home until the government pays the withheld salary.
The union had described the October 2022 salaries as “amputated and insensitive.”
To justify the government’s decision, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, noted that the government paid the lecturers pro rata.
ASUU had on February 2022 embarked on a strike which lasted for eight months until the National Industrial Court ordered ASUU to call off the strike on September 2022.
No Work, No Pay Policy
During the strike, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government vowed to sustain its No-Work, No-Pay policy in a bid to force the University teachers back to class.
This was countered by human rights lawyer and lead counsel to ASUU, Femi Falana, SAN, in a statement released on Sunday. He explained why the no-work-no-pay policy could not be applicable to ASUU.
Falana said via Tribune:
“In justifying the payment of half salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities for the month of October 2022, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has invoked the “no-work-no- pay” clause in section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act (Cap T8), Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. According to the Minister of Labour and Employment, the lecturers ‘were paid in pro rata to the number of days they worked in October, counting from the day that they suspended their industrial action. Pro-rata was done because you cannot pay them for work not done. Everybody’s hands are tied.
“The position of the Federal Government is factually faulty and legally misleading. Since the industrial action was called off, the public universities have adjusted their calendars to ensure that the 2021/2022 academic session is not cancelled.
“Consequently, students are currently taking lectures or writing examinations that were disrupted during the strike of the ASUU. Therefore, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the ASUU strike, the doctrine of “no work, no pay” is totally inapplicable as students who were not taught during the strike are currently attending lectures and writing examinations.”