Strike: FG May Consider Out-Of-Court Settlement With ASUU

CURSORY: The federal government has revealed that it will consider an out-of-court settlement just a few days after dragging the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to court.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a strike on February 14, 2022 to protest the failure of the government to honor the agreements with the union.

Some of the union’s demands include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, payment of lecturers’ earned allowances, deployment of University Transparency Accountability System as the payment platform for university lecturers, renegotiation of the ASUU-FG 2009 agreement among others.

In a bid to resolve the strike and other contentious issues, the government had raised a panel led by the Emeritus Professor Nimi-Briggs to head the government’s negotiations team.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, had told State House Correspondents during a press briefing that the refusal of the government to agree to pay the lecturers’ salaries for the six months they had spent at home was stalling the strike. He said ASUU insisted that lecturers must be paid their salaries for the period they were on strike.

After a lot of failed negotiations between the federal government and the union, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige dragged the striking university lecturers to court.

He asked the court to interpret in its entirety the provisions of Section 18 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, especially as it applies to the cessation of strike action once a trade dispute is being resolved.

The suit which was heard initially by Justice Hamman Polycarp on Monday, September 12, 2022 was adjourned to September 16, 2022.

The government had also implored on the court to, to order the striking lecturers to go back to the classrooms while the hearing was ongoing, this plea was declined by the court.

Meanwhile, a source in the Ministry of Labour and Employment who spoke with PUNCH in strict confidence on Thursday revealed that the government might consider an out-of-court settlement should the striking lecturers call off their strike and return to work.

The source noted that the reason why the striking lecturers were dragged to court was because of their failure to return to work despite the efforts made by the government.

The source said, “We may consider an out-of-court settlement if they agree to return to work. The reason we dragged them to court initially was because they refused our pleas to return to work.

We met with them several times and made moves for reconciliation but they refused. The reason for going to court is for the court to compel them to go back to work. If they agree to resume, there is no need going ahead with the suit.”

Read Also: FG vs ASUU: Again, court adjourns case

ALLSCHOOL TEAM