Non-teaching staff in Nigerian Universities under the auspices of Joint Action Committee (JAC) has threatened to resume its suspended strike by October 3, 2011 if the Federal Government failed to implement the collective agreement with the workers.
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The JAC, comprising National Association of Academic Technologist (NAAT), Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) told labour correspondents in Abuja that the action will begin with a seven-day warning strike? between October3 and 9, 2011 as a prelude to an indefinite industrial action.
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Chairman of JAC, who is also the national president of NAAT, comrade Abdulateef Jokomba, who addressed journalists, said it was unfortunate that the government was taking the union’s disposition to ensure industrial harmony in the University for cowardice.
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He claimed that the unions were summoned for a meeting between the minister of labour and his education counterpart on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at the instance of? the minister of labour, but the unions was abandoned.
The NAAT president however reaffirmed the unions’ commitment to take the necessary steps against the marginalisation of a section of the workforce in the education sector by the government.
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He also appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government to respect and implement the content of the agreement it entered into with the unions.new national minimum wage.
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the Unions added that, “a new dimension has crept into the grievances. The various unions’ agreement has a proviso in the agreements that whenever there is a general increase in public sectors salaries and allowances, the remuneration of non-academic staff shall be correspondingly increased. The new wage approved for Nigerian workers commenced in August 2011. Expectedly, the unions should have by now been invited for necessary briefing”. He said.
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