ASUP Strike: Union suspends 15-day old nationwide strike

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has suspended its nationwide strike 15 days after the industrial action began.

Usman Duste, the National President of ASUP made the announcement today during the union’s 14th National Delegates Conference at the Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi state. He said the decision to suspend the strike followed the series of meetings held between the leadership of the union and the Federal Government.

According to him, both parties agreed to a Memorandum of Settlement and Action (MoS) on each of the issues raised by the union. “The union considered the suspension to give an opportunity for implementation of the content of Memorandum of Settlement and Action, and shall be reviewed according to the timelines outlined in the MoS,” Duste said.

The decision to commence an indefinite strike was the outcome of the National Executive Council meeting of ASUP which held on November 11 at the Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State. According to the union, the industrial action followed the failure of the Federal Government to implement all the agreements it entered with them since 2016. Some of the demands included non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment Report and shortfalls in personnel releases and withdrawal of allowances.

Others were non-passage of the amended bill of the Polytechnic Act, alleged infractions in the appointment of rectors, as well as improving the conditions of state-owned institutions among other issues. The union had lamented that despite the long period given to the government to address some of the issues it had raised, government did not consider it necessary to address the demands for improved funding of polytechnic education in the country.

Dutse had also told reporters after the Council meeting that ASUP had given government sufficient time to implement all the agreements, saying they had no choice than to embark on an indefinite strike after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum issued earlier.

“On October 24, a reconciliation meeting was convened by the Federal Ministry of Labour in Abuja. The ministry in the eye of the storm, the Federal Ministry of Education, was poorly represented that no memorandum of action was agreed on. “This clearly shows the level of disdain and disrespect with which the issues of the sector are being handled by the relevant agencies. In view of the above, our union resolved in its emergency meeting of NEC on October 31, 2017 to commence an indefinite and comprehensive strike effective from November 13, 2017,” he had said.

ASUU Strike: FG Begins Payment Of University Lecturers' Salary Arrears

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has disclosed that the Federal Government has begun the payment of salary arrears of the striking university teachers.

But the lecturers, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) insisted that the Federal Government must remit N200 billion into the universities’ revitalisation fund before the ongoing strike can be suspended.
ASUU leaders, who came to the negotiation table with a former President of the union, Prof. Assisi Asobie and President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abuba Wabba, explained that the payment of their salary arrears without getting a commitment to the payment of the N200 billion for the rehabilitation of the universities would portray the union as being only concerned with the welfare of its members and not the general improvement of the teaching conditions in the institutions.

Issues in contention include the registration of Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO); fractionalization of salaries in federal universities and gross under-funding/non-funding of state universities and arrears and the implementation of earned academic allowance; and the non-release of funds for the revitalisation of public universities as spelt out in the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding.

Other issues are guidelines for the retirement benefits of professors in line with the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement; Treasury Single Account (TSA), etc.