Twelve days after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off its nine – months old industrial action another set of University workers under the aegis of National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have threatened to ground activities on campuses.
Specifically, NAAT said the proposed strike is to protest alleged disparity in the allocation of the N40 billion Earned Academic Allowance to be released by the Federal Government. The union last Sunday gave the government a 14- day strike notice to address concerns raised in the sharing formula adopted for the earned allowances or risk another round of industrial action in public universities.
NAAT and two other university-based unions – the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) are protesting the alleged allocation of 75 percent to the Academic Staff Union of Universities and 25 percent to them from the N40bn allowance.
But Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment said he was yet to receive official communication from the union about the planned strike by NAAT members. The minister, however, directed the leadership of NAAT; SSANU and NASU to the National Universities Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education on the allocation of the N40bn allowance. He said: “I have not seen their notice of strike.
When we see it, we will call the attention of their employers which are the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission. “But before then, they should go to the NUC and Federal Ministry of Education and find out the exact position of the N40bn they are talking about.
It is the NUC and FMoE that will determine what each union will get on the N40bn because they also have the template as submitted by the various universities for those earned allowances. The university workers are protesting the disparity in sharing of the N40 billion earned allowance released to the four university-based unions.