Labour
NASU, SSANU, NAAT suspend nationwide strike
- resume work on Monday
By OKOSUN DENNIS
The Nonacademic staff of Nigerian Universities on Thursday suspended their 10-day-old strike they embarked on to protest the non -implementation of agreement reached with the Federal Government.
The unions had gone on strike under the auspices of Joint Action Committee (JAC) over the non implementation of its 12-point demand on the 11th September.
A joint press statement signed by the Presidents of the three unions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) President, Mr. Samson C. Ugwoke; Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) President, Comrade Chris O. Ani and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), President, Comrade Sani Suleiman, and made available to National Daily said the strike has been suspended.
Announcing the suspension after a press conference at the end of its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, enjoined every member to resume work next Monday, 25 September, 2017.
National Daily gathered that their demands included the payment of earned allowances to members, a review of the governance system in governments owned universities and improved funding in line with UNESCO recommendations.
The unions also demanded the provisions of infrastructure in universities and payment of salary arrears being owed members, implementation of the National Industrial Court judgment on university staff schools and the registration of NUPEMCO.
Others are implementation of CONTISS 14 and 15 for Technologists as well as the improvement of teaching and learning facilities in the universities.
Ugwoke said a template had been developed towards addressing the issues in contention.
He said: “We hope that this will be a panacea to the continued conflicts between the university based non-teaching staff unions and the federal government.
“We have developed an actionable template with specific time frames to implement salient aspects of the agreement.
“Based on the foregoing and following exhaustive and extensive consultations with our various union organs, we hereby announce the suspension of the strike embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of NAAT, NASU and SSANU.
“Consequently, you are hereby informed that the strike action has been suspended and the members have been directed to resume work on Monday, 25th September, 2017,” they reiterated.