There are indications that unions in the university system may rise against the Federal Government over the alleged exclusion of their members in the 40 per cent pay rise for peculiar allowance and arrears.
Recently, he Federal Government approved a 40 per cent increase for civil servants in federal Ministries, Agencies, and Departments (MDAs) under the Consolidated Public Salary Structure. But workers in the university sector have kicked against their exclusion, describing the action of the government as a recipe for crisis.
The Federal Government has however said that there was no cause for alarm, and that university workers were captured in the pay rise.
The government also said it was waiting for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to conclude its negotiation on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the condition of service with its employer – the Federal Ministry of Education – which would then be transmitted to the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission.
The President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim to Vanguard on Monday that the idea of denying university workers the salary increment was an invitation to crisis in the university sector.
Ibrahim accused the government of abandoning the agreement it entered into with the university unions, alleging that the N50 billion Earned Allowances the government promised to include in the 2023 budget had not seen the light of the day as workers were yet to receive any payment on that.
He said: “This idea of denying university workers the salary increment is only a recipe for crisis in the education sector. Because the government had promised two years ago that they were going to review the salaries putting in the re-negotiation committee and re-negotiations never got concluded.
“There Is this N50 billion Earned Allowances which they said have been put in the 2023 budget, but it has not seen the light of the day. There is a proposal for a salary increment which they made and which has not also seen the light of the day.
“I want to call on the government to immediately without much delay releases the N50 billion Earned Allowances and also implement the salary increment which we have been talking with them in the last two years”.
However, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said the university workers were not excluded in the pay rise, explaining that the delay in paying them was due to the inability of ASUU to conclude negotiations with its employer.
He said: “ASUU has not concluded their Collective Bargaining with their employers, the Ministry of Education. If you remember, there was the Prof. Nimi Briggs committee, and that committee reached conclusion with NAAT (National Association of Academic Technologists), SSANU, and NASU (Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions).
“But there were certain observations made on the conclusion they reached. ASUU never came for them to reach any conclusion with them. So, there were certain observations that were pointed out to the education ministry.
”So they will now go back to education and revalidate a new CBA and transmit immediately to salaries, income, and wages. And salaries, income, and wages will work on it urgently as a new CBA for condition of service and transmit to the presidential committee on salaries. We expect all this will be done within the next fortnight.
”The same will go with ASUU whenever they come back to education and accept whatever education has offered them, it will also go to salaries, income, and wages commission for transmission to the presidential committee on salaries, that’s the route.
“Mark you, it is not only on salaries, but it also includes their allowances. It is the entire wage structure, component of their wage, monthly wage, and an annual wage that have been computed into that. Same is being done for NASU, SSANU, and others.
“This time around we expect CONUA (Congress of Nigerian University Academics) and NAMDA (National Association of Medical and Dental Academics) to go into CBA for their own members”.
On the complaint by SSANU that the N50 billion Earned Allowances, captured in 2023, have not been released to them, he said: “This is what I am telling you. Even their condition of service review and everything has been captured in the 2023 budget. Not only them, the educational sector including ASUU and their allowances. These allowances are even being doubled.
“There is no promise to SSANU separately, we are dealing with University unions comprehensively. It is combined. The money is more than N50 billion dedicated to the education sector. Everything has its own components, it’s more than N50 billion. For the educational sector including the Polytechnics and everybody, I think it is up to N350 billion captured in the 2023 budget”.
Asked why the money has not been released yet, Ngige said: “You do one line one step. This is a fall-out of industrial action, so we are tidying it up now starting with their condition of service of which their wage is first thing first. So it is when you do your wages that you now do extra allowances.”
