The Minister of Labour and Employment in the person of Chris Ngige standing in on behalf of the federal government has once again come out to debunk various allegations labelled against the ministry as regards to the fact that it was not engaging with the governing body of tertiary institutions in the country which is the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
In the words of the minister, there have been a series of meetings between the federal government with the Academic Staff union of university with another one of such meeting scheduled to hold today being Thursday the 23rd day of the month of June in this present year.
This disclosure were made known and information put across by the minister during his media briefing with the State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja of which we reported about on this platform.
It is worthy to note that this whole Asuu drama as regards to the strike all kicked off way back in February on the 14th day of that particular month with demands Pou across by the governing body such as revitalisation of public universities, earned allowance, improved funding of state universities, and promotion arrears, replacement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) with its own University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in the payment of emoluments to its member.
The Minister of labour and employment noted that the ministry still maintains its stance that the federal government was planning to introduce different salary payment platforms for the trade unions in tertiary institutions whereas the governing body of the tertiary institutions The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had an opposite say as regards this as they opinioned that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was shortchanging them.
Recount that this whole strike of a thing has been lingering for months as a result of the UTAS put across by the governing body failing three integrity tests with the minister noting way back that “No employee or worker can dictate to his employer how he or she will be paid.’’ affirming that efforts were on towards resolving the ongoing face-off between the government and ASUU.