Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), yesterday, rejected the federal government’s plan to pay its members half salary for the four months withheld salaries.
Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on Wednesday, revealed that SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) would get half of their withheld salaries if President Bola Tinubu approves the payment plan.
In a swift reaction, SSANU Vice President, West, Abdussobor Salaam, told our correspondent there was no basis for the federal government to withhold members’ four months salaries ab-initio, reports Daily Sun.
He said: “It is not an act of tokenism, magnanimity, or benevolence to pay us those salaries. We are not settling for half or three quarters, but our total salaries for the period.”
Salaam described as unfortunate that issues like this are being treated with levity and without any proactivity by the federal government.
“Our first engagement with the education minister on this issue was last November. We also had a meeting with the minister during our warning strike almost a month ago. If till today, they are still pushing for approval for the payment, the same position they were since November, it goes to show how insensitive they are about the issue.
“We went on strike in 2022 after fully observing all processes to embark on strike. The burden of the strike was not due to our irresponsibility but that of the federal government. If the government had acted responsibly, there would have been no strike in 2022. To now punish people who were forced to go on strike due to the irresponsibility of their employers is injustice, to say the least.
“We went on strike following all due and laid down processes in our Labour Laws. We ended the strike based on an agreement with the Federal Government. The agreement included a non-victimisation clause that stated that no member of the unions (SSANU and NASU) would be denied any rights or privileges on account of the strike. Based on that agreement, there is no basis for our salaries not to have been paid.”
According to him, the unions had enough justification to demand the payment of the withheld four month salaries, noting, “to this end, half salaries are totally unacceptable to us.”
The vice president said only full salaries would be acceptable in the face of the memorandum of understanding signed between the unions and government, adding, “please note that SSANU and NASU are not bound by a court judgment instituted between other parties.
“The circumstances, contexts and situation of the matter involving another group which we were not party to, cannot be binding on us in this matter. We were never coerced to go back to work nor were we instructed by the courts. We returned to work on our free will based on an agreement that we would not be victimised.”
Salaam told our correspondent that the union cannot determine in figures, how much is the money being owed members for the withheld four months salaries.
“We were reached out to, during the warning strike but nobody has reached out to us since the strike was over. Things have been at a standstill and remain the same,” he said.
On the implication of the minister’s comment, Salaam said it shows clearly he does not understand the issues or is being misguided over the issues.
He warned that SSANU would not take the education minister’s comments lightly. The vice president noted that the comment would lead to its members taking a decision that would lead to unpalatable consequences for the universities.
Salaam said: “It is better the minister acts well and acts now, rather than rolling clueless on a barber chair.”
