Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has described the proposed strike action by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities as illegal.
Ngige who asked the two unions to give the federal government three months to forward a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to cover arrears of the minimum wage that have not been paid to them, said it will be illegal for them to proceed on strike when discussions to sort out some of the contentious issues were still ongoing.
The Minister warned that if the negotiation and what has been agreed is not obeyed, then the ministry might have to refer the dispute upwards from the industrial arbitration panel to the national industrial court.
“We will not claim ignorance of the fact that three unions in the University system, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT had given us notice of strike.
“The first two unions SSANU and NASU did that under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee, JAC, and as government, we have moved to apprehend the strike because we just came out from a strike that lasted for nine months that was executed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
“So in consonance with the labour laws, we have apprehended both strikes. They gave us Trade dispute notice, we scheduled meetings with them after apprehension, we held a meeting with NASU and SSANU last week Tuesday and the government position was explained to them.
“They have a lot of issues mentioned as their grouse, issues like IPPIS. They said IPPIS has amputated some of their allowances, they also have the issue of consequential adjustment that was paid to all civil servants as a result of the new minimum wage of N30,000 for staff above Grade Level One, that is starting from Grade Level two up to level 17.