Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are reported to have received their full salaries for the month of November 2022.
This is a departure from what happened last month, where the lecturers were paid half their salaries, which was on a pro-rata basis.
According to a report from Punch, this was confirmed by a senior member of the union at the Bayero University, Kano, during an interview on Wednesday in Abuja.
Arrears still withheld: However, the report says the 8-month salary arrears that members of ASUU have been agitating for still remain unpaid by the federal government.
- The ASUU senior official said, “Some of our members have started receiving salaries and I can confirm to you that we received our full salaries for the month of November. However, the arrears are still withheld.”
For catchup: ASUU members embarked on a strike on February 14, 2022, to press home their demands on the federal government.
Some of the lecturers’ demands include funding for the revitalization of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances, and adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a preferred payment option instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). Other demands include payment of promotion arrears and the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had dragged ASUU to the National Industrial Court, seeking an order of the court to restrain striking lecturers from further continuing with the strike.
Despite a ruling by the National Industrial Court on September 21, 2022, ordering them to return to work, the university lecturers remained adamant and subsequently filed an appeal against the court ruling.
After no breakthrough in negotiations between ASUU and the federal government, the Appeal Court ordered the striking lecturers to resume duty immediately.
The Court also granted ASUU “conditional leave to appeal the order of the Industrial Court, while insisting that ASUU must obey the order of the lower court with effect from October 7”.
Consequently, ASUU, in compliance with the Appeal Court order called off its strike earlier in October.
The federal government, however, insisted that the lecturers will not be paid for the 8 months that they were on strike, insisting on its ‘no work no pay’ policy.
Ngige, in defense of the half salary paid to the lecturers in the month of October, said that they were paid on a pro-rata basis for the 18 days they worked.
Lecturers across the country have been protesting against this decision by the federal government, with threats of another crisis in the university system.
