The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment has denied media claims alleging prejudice in the payment of Academic Staff Union (ASUU) of Nigeria members’ salary.
The government also denied ASUU members’ claims that they were only paid half their wage for the month of October.
On Saturday, Olajide Oshundun, Head of Press and Public Relations at the Labour Ministry, released a press statement calling both claims “grossly false, deceptive, and blatant distortions of facts.”
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The response stated that ASUU members were paid their October salary pro-rata, not half salary as widely reported in the media.
According to the ministry, pro-rata was used since they could not be compensated for work that was not completed.
It claims that Senator Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, never instructed the Federation’s Accountant General to pay university teachers half-salary.
The statement in part reads, “Following the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), asking ASUU to go back to work, the leadership of the union wrote to the Minister, informing him that they have suspended the strike. The Federal Ministry of Education wrote to him in a similar vein and our labour inspectors in various states also confirmed that they have resumed work.
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“So, the Minister wrote to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, directing that their salaries should be restored. They were paid in pro rata to the number of days that they worked in October, counting from the day that they suspended their industrial action. Pro-rata was done because you cannot pay them for work not done. Everybody’s hands are tied.”
The ministry also criticized a statement by Muhammad N. Al-Mustapha, Chairperson of ASUU, Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS) branch, accusing the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, of prejudice in the payment of salaries to selected professional members of the union.
“Those obviously being referred to by the UDUS ASUU chairperson were members of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association (MDCAN) who abstained from the eight-month strike of ASUU because they abhorred the incessant strikes by the union and its grave effects on medical education in Nigeria and production of more medical doctors.
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“Accusing the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, of biased payment of salaries to selected professional members of ASUU, is a barefaced distortion of facts. Mustapha said he received information that a segment of the staff in the College of Health Sciences (CHS) has been paid seven months of their withheld salaries from March to September, due to a letter written to the Minister of Finance, instructing the exemption of the under-listed staff on the application of ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule
“To set the records straight, the medical lecturers who are being referred to by the Chairperson of the ASUU UDUS branch, abstained from the eight-month strike of ASUU. This has been corroborated in a press statement by the Chairman, MDCAN UdUS, Dr B. Jubrin and Secretary, Dr I. G Ango, on Friday, November 4, 2022.”
As a result, the ministry refuted the accusation of preferential treatment in the distribution of salary to ASUU members, requesting the media to double-check their facts to avoid misleading the public.
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