The Senate has set in motion to stop the plan by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) to embark on a nationwide strike over N20billion accumulated earned allowance.
This follows the adoption of a motion by Sen. Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano) on the impending strike by the associations.
Jibrin noted with regrets that the issues over which the two unions have now given notice for industrial action are matters that concern their relationship with ASUU and alleged refusal of the federal government to execute agreement it had with them in 2006.
He added that their grievances also include the situation of their members on the national pension company which is now being operated by ASUU.
“The allegation that ASUU is being accorded preferential treatment by the federal government because of allocation of 80 percent of funds released as earned academic allowances while the remaining 20 percent is allocated to non-academic staff.
“Rather than accept what they were given by the federal government, SSANU and NASU are asking a fresh demand of N20billion to non-teaching staff as earned allowances for 2009 to 2016 period,” he said.
Contributing, Sen Adamu Aliero (APC,Kebbi) said the universities have faced so much crises leading to low standard of education.
There is no Minister of Labour and Education to bring the two warring factions to dialogue. This being the situation, we should not allow this to degenerate. Perhaps an ad-hoc committee should be set up to intervene,” he said.
In passing resolution on the motion, the Senate called on SSANU and NASU to explore and engage ASUU in productive dialogue.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, was also mandated to invite the two unions, the NUC and the Ministry of Education with a view to addressing the matter.
The President of SSANU, Samson Ugwoke, had while addressing newsmen, called on the Federal Government to release N30billion to the non-teaching staff as earned allowance for the period of 2009 to 2016.
