The federal government has said that it supports the revision of the university workers’ benefit package in light of current reality.
On Monday, Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, stated as much during a meeting with members of the 2009 FG and university-based unions renegotiation committee.
Ngige confessed that the government was dissatisfied with the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) strategy for pursuing its demands.
JUST IN: FG Set To Meet ASUU Today Over Strike
ASUU began a one-month warning strike on February 14 and then prolonged it for another two months due to the government’s claimed refusal to fulfill their demands.
During a meeting with the Federal Government Renegotiation Committee in his office, however, Ngige appealed with the committee to complete its work within six weeks, as stipulated in the Memorandum of Agreement with the unions.
The Minister also asked ASUU’s leadership to find a better manner of pressuring the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission, NUC, to speed up the execution of agreements agreed with the government rather than going to strike every time a disagreement arose.
According to Ngige, “I am not Minister of Education. I cannot go to the Education Minister and dictate to him how to run his place. But I told ASUU that you should be bombarding them at the Federal Ministry of Education for this to be moved forward.
LATEST NEWS: ASUU Reveals Latest Update On Strike
“There are many ways to do so. If you go to the labour act, there is something called picketing. You can picket. The strike is an ultimate thing. Picketing means that you can stay in the corridor, clapping or singing. Workers are permitted to do so.
“But I am tired of every time there is a disagreement, it is a strike. And the bosses in the Federal Ministry of Education don’t feel the strike. It is the children and some of us parents that have our children in public schools.”
He added, “Why won’t I support if ASUU and their unions now want a renegotiation of their conditions of service, which is the main thing in the proposal by the previous Committee.”
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Chairman of the 2009 FG and university-based union renegotiation Committee, Prof. Nimi Briggs said his Committee was consulting all the stakeholders with a view to finding an amicable solution to the ASUU dispute.
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