The Educational Workers Union of Universities has differed with the Federal Authorities over the reported removing of the union from the Built-in Personnel and Payroll Info System.
On Monday, a web based report (not The PUNCH) careworn that the Workplace of the Accountant Common of the Federation had confirmed the deactivation of the IPPIS for federal tertiary establishments.
It added that the Director of Press and Public Relations on the OAGF, Bawa Mokwa, in an interview, said, “It was solely pure for the IPPIS platform for FTIs to be shut down, given the Federal Authorities’s directive to take away these establishments from the system.”
Nonetheless, in an interview with the Nationwide President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, stated it was merely a misuse of phrases, including that the rules nonetheless insisted that universities ought to ship their salaries to IPPIS for verification and screening.
He stated, “It isn’t acceptable to us as a union. In case you undergo the physique of the assertion, you’ll see the place it was famous that the federal government would nonetheless ahead names to IPPIS for verification earlier than salaries are paid.
“Are you aware the variety of establishments that we have now within the nation? To us, that is only a plot to control and complicate issues so it’s not acceptable.”
“Because of this over 300 establishments throughout the nation will ship their wage information to IPPIS for vetting. Each college ought to put together salaries and pay employees after budgets have been handed by the Home of Representatives and accredited and signed by the President.
“In the event that they need to take away us from IPPIS, why ought to IPPIS nonetheless confirm our salaries?”
ASUU, over time, claimed the federal government template would enslave intellectuals, because it didn’t make provisions for cost of arrears of promotion, research go away allowance, or duty allowance, amongst others.
The union stated that the IPPIS template was designed to part out college lecturers above 60 years in opposition to the brand new coverage the place professors retired at 70 years, saying forceful imposition of the IPPIS on college employees violated the College Autonomy Act.
Following the controversies over the IPPIS, the union developed the College Transparency and Accountability Resolution instead nevertheless it was not adopted by the Federal Authorities.
Different college unions, together with the Senior Workers Affiliation of Nigerian Universities and Educational Workers Union of Polytechnics, when contacted by our correspondent, stated they had been unaware of the event.
Osodeke, nonetheless, revealed that ASUU can be having its main assembly with the renegotiation workforce instituted by the Federal Authorities.
In an interview with The PUNCH, he revealed “There’s nothing new to report in the meanwhile. We can be assembly with the federal government quickly, and we’ll inform you whether or not we’ll go on strike or not.
“Till after that assembly, we can’t decide if the end result can be constructive.
“We hope for a beneficial response, as this can be our first main assembly. The earlier assembly was held to ascertain pointers for the renegotiation of our 2009 settlement.”
CONUA seeks cost of withheld salaries
The Congress of College Academia, on Monday, demanded the fast launch of over three months of wage of its members withheld by the Federal Authorities.
The group which declared that the federal government’s refusal to pay the excellent wage may throw universities within the nation into disaster, additionally decried the non-release of Earned Educational Allowance overlaying a interval of over 10 tutorial classes.
CONUA, in a press assertion signed by its Nationwide President, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, obtained in Osogbo, Osun State, on Monday, stated the interval lined by the withheld salaries was the three and half months throughout which lecturers belonging to ASUU launched into strike.
Sunmonu stated CONUA members didn’t name for or embark on industrial motion in the course of the interval, including that withholding their salaries was in opposition to the July 25, 2023 judgment of the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom, which affirmed CONUA as an impartial union.
“The union needs to as soon as once more name the eye of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) to the continued withholding of the three and a half months wage because of the strike motion embarked by a sister tutorial employees union within the universities.
“CONUA, as a union, has constantly maintained that it by no means declared and was not a part of the strike motion.
“What the federal government had executed was to lump collectively those that launched into strike with those that didn’t. That is unjust, and it’s tantamount to punishing the harmless together with the responsible.
“The Federal Authorities’s motion truly goes in opposition to the judgment delivered on twenty fifth July 2023 on the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom of Nigeria (NICN), which affirmed CONUA as an impartial union.
“The President ought to be aware that withholding the three and a half months salaries of members of CONUA, who neither declared nor participated in any strike motion, additionally contravenes Part 43 (1b) of the Commerce Disputes Act CAP. T8, which states that ‘the place any employer locks out his employees, the employees shall be entitled to wages and some other relevant remunerations for the interval of the lock-out and the interval of the lock-out shall not prejudicially have an effect on any rights of the employees being rights depending on the continuity of the interval of employment’. This provision is per international greatest practices.”