ASUU set to protest federal government’s half pay policy

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have called for a protest against what it termed as ‘the casualisation of intellectualism in Nigeria’.

According to the notice seen by TheCable, the protest is billed to hold in different chapters of the union on Tuesday.

Earlier, the union announced its plan to declare a lecture-free day across tertiary institutions to express its displeasure about the non-payment of its salaries.

ASUU had embarked on strike in February, which was later suspended following a court order in October.

Prior to the suspension of the strike, the federal government had threatened to invoke the ‘no work, no pay’ policy — a decision the government later said would be reconsidered.

But after the suspension of the strike, the lecturers were paid ‘half’ salary for the month of October.

The federal government justified its action, explaining that the lecturers were paid based on the number of days they worked in October and not half salary as reported.

But ASUU had replied that they were intellectuals and should not be treated as casual workers.

Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU chairman, described the government’s action as a contravention of their rules of engagement.

“NEC noted with dismay that paying academics on a ‘pro-rata’ basis, like casual workers, is unprecedented in the history of university-oriented labour relations and therefore condemned this attempt to reduce Nigerian scholars to casual workers in its entirety,” he had said.

“Unfortunately, the response of government towards ASUU’s demonstration of trust was the so-called ‘pro-rata’ payment for eighteen days as the October 2022 salaries of academics thereby portraying them as daily paid workers!”