LATEST: NAAT Suspends Strike For 3 Months

LATEST: NAAT Suspends Strike For 3 Months

by Victor Ndubuisi
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The three-month nationwide strike by the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has been postponed.

This action comes after the Non-Academic Staff Union of University and Allied Institutions NASU and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities SSANU previously suspended their strike.

Ibeji Nwokoma, the national president of NAAT, said this while speaking to reporters on Thursday in Abuja following the union’s National Executive Council meeting.

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Nwokoma claimed that NAAT began its strike on March 21, 2022, in order to enforce its demands, which include the refusal to implement the FGN/NAAT 2009 agreement, the withholding of the enabling circular for the implementation of CONTISS 14 and 15 for academic technologists, and the failure to pay members’ arrears of Earned Academic Allowances.

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The NAAT President said that despite rejecting the Federal Administration’s “No Work, No Pay” policy, the union was able to obtain promises and resolutions on some of its requests after engaging the government vigorously.

He listed commitments secured from the Federal Government to include the release of enabling circulars on CONTISS 14 and 15, agreements on payment of arrears of minimum wage/consequential adjustments, payment of occupational hazard allowance, and implementation of responsibility allowance, among others.

“Following this understanding with Government, NAAT as a democratic union directed all her branches to conduct a referendum on whether to suspend or continue the strike action. The National Executive Council of NAAT met and considered the results from branches today Thursday 25th August 2022.

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“The result of the referendum from branches showed that 80.56% voted in favour of a suspension of the strike while 19.44% voted for the continuation of the strike action.

” Subsequently, NEC came to the conclusion that the demands of NAAT were substantially being addressed.

Following the aforementioned outcome and calls and appeals from well-meaning Nigerians, students, parents, and other crucial stakeholders, the NEC unanimously decided during its session that the current strike action would be suspended for three (3) months to give the government time to address all of the pertinent issues, with the suspension taking effect at midnight on Friday, August 26, 2022.

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“By this development, all NAAT members in tertiary institutions are directed to resume work with effect from the date stated above. NAAT, therefore requests that students especially final year project students/researchers with ongoing research activities and other unfinished practical works can come over and would be attended to.

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“On the Federal Government of Nigeria’s position to invoke the No work, No pay rule, NAAT totally reject this in its entirety as we are not the architect of the prolonged strike action but rather FGN’s failure to address all the contending issues promptly. It should be noted that NAAT complied with all laid-down procedures before embarking on the industrial action.

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“Therefore, NAAT demands in strong terms the payment of our withheld salaries without delay.

“It is important to state that at the expiration of the three months window period, NAAT will not hesitate to resume the suspended strike action without notice if all the issues agreed upon with the Honourable Minister of Education, on behalf of the government are not holistically addressed,” Nwokoma said.

 

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