FG drags ASUU to Court Over ongoing Strike, says negotiations failed

CURSORY :

• The ongoing ASUU strike and the constant stalemate between the union and the federal government during negotiations, has resulted to the government taking it to the industrial court.

FG has filed a case against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its ongoing strike.

The strike that commenced from February 14, has lasted for more than 7 months. The union embarked on the strike to protest alleged decay of infrastructure and neglect of the welfare of it’s members.

There has since been several meetings between the union and the government to negotiate, but they have all ended in stalemate without any substantial outcome.

A reliable source at the Federal Ministry of Labour told THISDAY last night that the ministry’s Trade Dispute Department had filed a case before the Industrial Arbitration Court in Abuja and that the hearing would commence next Monday.

According to the source, “The federal government has filed a case at the Industrial Court challenging the continued strike by the university teachers. This is in conformity with Section 17 of the Trade Dispute Act.”

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed that the federal government will not sign any other agreement it cannot implement, during a meeting of Pro-Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities, held at the NUC’s office.

Adamu said President Muhammadu Buhari had warned the government’s team involved in the negotiation with ASUU against signing an agreement that the government would not be able to fulfil.

The minister said the government had offered the union a 23.5 per cent salary increase “for all categories of the workforce in federal universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35 per cent upward review.  He said the government had also promised that N150 billion “shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalisation of federal universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year.”

Also, the government said N50 billion would be provided “for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding arrears of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the first quarter of the year.”

However, ASUU and three other university unions have rejected the offer, describing it as “inadequate to meet their respective demands needed to tackle the challenges confronting the university system.”

Read Also: Education Minister drops fresh details on the ongoing ASUU strike; public varsities reopening?

ALLSCHOOL TEAM