The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, revealed that ASUU agreed at their last meeting with the government team on November 27 to call off their nine-month-old strike before December 9.
"The truth of the matter is that a 'gentleman agreement' was reached at the last meeting in which ASUU agreed to call off the strike before December 9, 2020, and the Minister, in turn, agreed that once the strike is called off, he would get a presidential waiver for ASUU to be paid the remainder of their salaries on or before December 9," Ngige stated.
Refuting the claims, Ngige said it is false and discomfiting for ASUU to wrongly inform the public that the government agreed to pay all withheld salaries before it will resume work, stressing that the timelines attached to the various offers made to the union had been complied with.
"The gazzeting is also being rounded off at the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation while the Ministry of Education is ready to inaugurate the various visitation panels." Ngige explained that he got special presidential approval to demonstrate good faith to ASUU members that the government was not on a vengeful mission or out to starve the lecturers to death as some of them were claiming.
" The government said the outstanding salaries to ASUU was for July, August, September and October "as no federal public servant has been paid for November 2020." The minister said it is baseless for ASUU to claim it cannot go back to school on an empty stomach while the government had on compassionate grounds paid five months salaries out of the nine months they had been on strike.
"ASUU is fully aware of the principle of No Work, No Pay of the section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act under which many unions like National Association of Residents Doctors in 2017 and Joint Health Sector Unions in 2018 among others, have lost salaries as a result of the strike," he noted.
"Asking the government to pay these four months before it goes back to work means ASUU is placing itself above the law of the land and no government will encourage it as it is a recipe for chaos in the labour milieu," the minister said, adding that the FG would continue to engage the union in the spirit of social dialogue.
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