Withheld Salaries: ASUU may take ‘fundamental’ decisions at ongoing NEC meeting 

The National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) kicked off on Saturday at the Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, in Bayelsa State.

According to multiple sources among the union members, the two-day meeting, which is expected to end on Saturday evening or early Monday morning, will take some fundamental decision on key issues such as the rising cost of living, withheld members’ salaries, delayed payment of January salary, and the continued use of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for the salary payment of its members.

Withheld Salaries
Last year, President Bola Tinubu waived the No-Work-No-Pay policy imposed on striking lecturers by the administration of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.

As a result of the policy, the administration of Mr Buhari withheld eight months’ salaries of the university workers till the end of his tenure. The decision was based on their participation in a prolonged strike that lasted eight months.

FIRS
The affected unions are the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Universities and Allied Institutions.

In October, 2023, after prolonged conversations with concerned stakeholders, Mr Tinubu announced that the government had resolved to pay four of the eight months’ withheld salaries.

Four months later, however, PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the withheld salaries have not been paid.

Meanwhile, the lecturers also said the salary for the month of January was only paid on Friday, nine days into February.

“The President’s directive hasn’t been implemented, four months after. Nothing has been paid. No backlog,” a lecturer, who does not want to be quoted, told this newspaper.

“So I can guarantee you that with the high inflation, rising cost of living and the unmet demands, ASUU will take some fundamental decisions at the NEC meeting.”

IPPIS
The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, a professor, announced in December, 2023 that the government has agreed to exempt Nigerian tertiary institutions –universities, polytechnics and colleges of education– IPPIS.

The IPPIS is a centralised payment system used to pay all federal government employees, which ASUU has consistently kicked against.

The union listed it as one of the conditions before it would suspend an industrial action it embarked on in 2022. The lecturers would later be compelled to resume after an Industrial court in Abuja ruled against it in a lawsuit instituted by the then Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.