Non-teaching staff of varsities suspend strike

The Non-teaching staff of Nigerian Universities have suspended their two-week-old strike over the non-implementation of an agreement reached with the federal government.

On September 11, the non-teaching staff of universities under the auspices of Joint Action Committee (JAC) had embarked on an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of its 12- point demand.

At a news conference in Abuja on Friday, Samson Ugwoke, national chairman of JAC, said the decision to suspend the industrial action was taken at the national executive council meeting in Abuja.

The unions are made up of the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).

The demands of the unions are the payment of earned allowances to members, a review of the governance system in government-owned universities and improved funding in line with UNESCO recommendations.

The unions also demanded the provisions of infrastructure in universities and payment of salary shortfall being owed members, implementation of the National Industrial Court judgment on University staff schools and the registration of NUPEMCO.

Others are implementation of CONTISS 14 and 15 for Technologists as well as the improvement of teaching and learning facilities in the universities.

The unions also called on federal government to show more commitment and seriousness in the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/University unions agreement, among others

Ugwoke said a template had been developed towards addressing the issues in contention.

“We hope that this will be a panacea to the continued conflicts between the university-based non-teaching staff unions and the federal government,” he said.

“”We have developed an actionable template with specific time frames to implement salient aspects of the agreement.

““Based on the foregoing and following exhaustive and extensive consultations with our various union organs, we hereby announce the suspension of the strike embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of NAAT, NASU and SSANU.

“We have consequently directed our members to resume work on Monday, September 25, 2017. In one month’s time.

“We shall be reviewing the level of compliance with the agreement and shall not hesitate to resume the strike action if government reneges on the agreements reached or delays in any aspects.”

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suspended its one-month strike earlier in the month.