ASUU strike: Court adjourns hearing in FG suit till Sept. 16, as union to assemble over 100 law professors

Industrial Court in Abuja has adjourned hearing on the suit filed by the Federal Government, Monday, against the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

After listening to the application filed by the Federal Government, the court fixed for Friday, September 16 for further hearing in the suit, as ASUU is expected to filed its position at the resumed hearing.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that ASUU is planning to assemble over 100 law professors to defend the union in the suit filed by the Federal Government challenging its continued industrial action.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government, Monday, dragged the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) for adjudication over the lingering strike embarked upon by members of the public universities lecturers’ union.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who disclosed this, last Sunday, in Abuja in a letter addressed to the Registrar of NICN, dated September 8, as contained in a statement signed by Olajide Oshundun, Head, Press and Public Relations, said that the decision to head to court had become necessary following the failure of dialogue between parties to the trade dispute.

Negotiations between the Federal Government team and the lecturers had ended deadlocked over the former’s insistence on implementing the ‘no-work-no-pay’ rule, as ASUU demanded its reversal as one last hurdle before resuming work.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14, this year, over demands bordering on seven items, including; Signing of June 2022 agreement; Adoption of UTAS payment system; N170billion for NEEDS; N50billion for arrears; White Papers from visitation panels; Intervention on the Draft Bill; and Payment of salaries since March 2022.

”The Federal Government has asked the NICN to inquire into the legality or otherwise of the ongoing prolonged strike by ASUU leadership and members that had continued even after apprehension.

“It asked the court to interpret in its entirety the provisions of Section 18 LFN 2004, especially as it applies to the cessation of strike once a trade dispute is apprehended by the Minister of Labour and Employment and conciliation is ongoing,” he said.

He also said that the NICN are to interpret the provisions of Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, Cap T8. LFN 2004, titled “Special Provision with Respect to payment of wages during strikes and lock-outs”.

Ngige said this ”specifically dealing with the rights of employees/workers during the period of any strike or lock-out.

”Can ASUU or any other union that embarked on strike be asking to be paid salaries even with clear provisions of the law.

“Determine whether ASUU members are entitled to emoluments or ‘strike pay’ during their period of strike, which commenced on February 14.

”Moreso, in view of our national law as provided in Section 43 of the TDA and the International Labour Principles on the right to strike as well as the decisions of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association on the subject,” he said.

He added that NICN should determine whether ASUU has the right to embark on strike over disputes as is the case in this instance by compelling the Federal Government to employ its own University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) in the payment of the wages of its members.

According to him, as this is universally used by the Federal Government in the nation for payment of wages of all her employees in the Federal Government Public Service of which university workers, including ASUU members, are part of.

”Or even where the government via NITDA subjected ASUU and their counterpart, Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll Systems (UPPPS) software to integrity test (vulnerability and stress test) and they failed,” he said.

Ngigi also said the Federal Government further asked the court to determine the extent of fulfillment of ASUU’s demands since the 2020 Memorandum of Action (MOA) that the union signed with government.

The minister said their demands include the funding for revitalisation of public universities as per 2009 agreement, Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) payments, state universities proliferation and constitution of visitation panels, and release of white paper on the report of the visitation panels.

He noted that others are the reconstitution of the government renegotiation team for renegotiation of 2009 agreement, which was renegotiated 2013/2014, due for renegotiation 2018/2019, and the migration of ASUU members from IPPIS to its own UTAS, which is currently on test at NITDA.

”Consequently, the Federal Government requested for an order of the Court for ASUU members to resume work in their various universities while the issues in dispute are being addressed by the NICN in consonance with the provisions of Section 18 (I) (b) of the TDA Cap T8. LFN 2004,” he said.