Nigerian Minister of Labour and Employment has claimed that the university lecturers want to get paid for jobs they didn’t do.
The Minister made the revelation during an interview session on Arise TV‘s The Morning Show.
Ngige said that the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have made progress on the issue of an agreed payment portal.
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According to him, the Federal Government has now agreed to make payments through the union’s recommended University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), instead of its Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS).
He said, “UTAS is the University transparent and Accountability Solution platform, which ASUU said their scientist have developed.
They has now given approval to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which is the technology agency in charge of government software and everything on information technology. So, they have started the process. ASUU has given them the materials they needed. I have met with the people in NITDA, and ASUU reported that they are satisfied with the progress being made. NITDA has giving me a preliminary report and also a secondary report or final report. We are all satisfied.”
The minister then said the ending of the eight-month strike is now being stalled due to transition.
He explained:
“What we are saying now is that there is a problem within the transition period, all these end allowances we are talking about, and how do we pay it?
“The summary you are asking us to lift the embargo on (because they are summaries that were embargoed after June when they refused to go back to work). It is a law of “No work, No Pay” section 43 of the industrial dispute act and even at the principles at work, if you are not working, don’t receive any compensation from your employer. These are the laws and principles of the convention of the IMOs.
“We assured ASUU because they made a request that they needed that money, and we told them that there is a law like this, and the decision has caught up with you, they now pledged to the meeting that unlike medical doctors and nurses, who when they go on strike, people lose lives that they can’t bring back, even when they resume to work, they will teach extra periods (day and night), to make sure no one losses extra semester for their students. This is their pledge, based on that pledge, we say to them, we would now take your pledge and your accession to a higher authority, for us to get the relevant approval for these withheld salaries to be released.”
