EDUCATION

ASUU Strike: court upholds FG’s no-work no-pay stance against university lecturers

May 30, 2023

The National Industrial Court in Abuja on Tuesday validated the no-work-no-pay policy the Nigerian government implemented against members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The president of the court, Benedict Kanyip, affirmed the validity of the policy in his judgement on the suit filed by the government, Daily Trust reported.

ASUU members embarked on a nationwide strike in February 2022 which lingered for eight months.

During the period, public universities were shut across the country.

The union only called off the strike after the Court of Appeal ordered it to return to work.

Part of ASUU’s reasons for embarking on the strike included the failure of the federal government of refusing to implement a 2009 agreement on matters bordering on increased funding of universities and increasing lecturers’ salaries.

The matter got to a head when the union embarked on an initial four weeks strike on 14 February, asking the government to honour the agreements it had entered with the union in 2009.

On 19 July, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, took over negotiations promising to get all striking university workers back to work in the shortest possible time

While Mr Adamu’s persuasion worked on other unions, it fell flat with ASUU with the ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule introduced by the government.

ASUU, in reaction, extended its strike indefinitely on 29 August.

Following its inability to resolve the dispute with ASUU through negotiations, the federal government, through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, referred the matter to the industrial court for resolution.

The government asked the court to determine the legality or otherwise of the strike.

It also asked the court to determine whether ASUU members were entitled to emoluments for the period they had been on strike.

The Nigerian government also asked the court to adjudicate on the propriety or otherwise of the strike.

The government also “requested an order of the Court for ASUU members to resume work in their various universities while the issues in dispute are being addressed by the NICN in consonance with the provisions of Section 18 (I) (b) of the TDA Cap T8. LFN 2004.”

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The court held on Tuesday that government was right to withhold salaries of workers who embarked on industrial action.

However, it held that it is a violation of university autonomy for the federal government to impose the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform on members of ASUU who reserve the right to determine how their salaries should be paid.