The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a four-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to resolve its lingering industrial dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions in the tertiary education sector, warning that failure to do so will trigger a nationwide strike.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, made this known on Monday after a meeting of the congress’s leadership, stressing that the organised labour would no longer tolerate recurrent disruptions in the nation’s education system.
He stated that the era of government signing agreements and reneging on implementation "has come to an end," adding that the Congress had set up a framework for monitoring and ensuring the implementation of the 2009 agreement aimed at sustainable funding for the education sector.
"We have decided to give the Federal Government four weeks to conclude all negotiations in this sector.
"They have started talks with us, but the problem in this sector goes beyond the academic staff union alone. All the other unions are also involved.
"If after four weeks, this negotiation is not concluded, the organs of the NLC will meet and take a nationwide action that will involve workers in the country.
"All the unions in the country will be involved so that we get to the root of all this. The era of signing agreements and threatening the unions involved has come to an end," he said.
Ajaero explained that the NLC had held extensive consultations with the four university-based unions; ASUU, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) to forge a united front in resolving the sector’s long-standing challenges.
"The NLC, after extensive deliberation with the unions in the tertiary institutions on finding solutions to the perennial problems in that sector, has resolved at the level of the NLC to work with the unions to make sure that we are able to find a lasting solution to the problems that they have been facing all these years," he said.
The four unions have been locked in a prolonged dispute with the government over the non-implementation of past agreements.
Contentious issues include the uneven disbursement of the N50 billion earned allowance between teaching and non-teaching staff, and the withholding of two months’ salaries of NASU, SSANU, and NAAT members following previous strikes.
The NLC president also condemned the government’s habit of sending junior officials without negotiation mandates to meetings with unions, describing it as a major reason for the repeated collapse of talks.
"We discovered that those government officials sent to meetings go there without mandates. Henceforth, the trade unions, either in the tertiary institutions or anywhere, will not go into any meeting with government representatives who do not have mandates.
"That is what is at the point of this crisis. You go and face a negotiation, you sign an agreement, and then you go back without achieving anything. Never again. Agreements are sacrosanct," he said.
Ajaero further criticised the Federal Government’s ‘no work, no pay’ policy, arguing that it was unjust to punish workers for actions provoked by the government’s own failure to honour agreements.
"On one issue of the so-called policy of no work, no pay, you can’t benefit from an action you instigated.
"We have discovered that 90 per cent of strike actions in this country are caused by failure to obey agreements. You can’t refuse to obey agreements, and you punish the other party.
"So it is a problem of cause and effect. So the person who caused the problem will be ready to bear the consequences. You can’t beat a child and ask the child not to cry," he said.
If the government fails to meet the four-week deadline, the NLC warned, the impending industrial action will not be limited to the education sector but will involve all affiliate unions across the country.
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