THE Federal Government has invited the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the striking Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Educational and Associated Institutions and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) for dialogue.
According to SSANU vice president, Abdussobur Salaam, the meeting is scheduled for today (Thursday), October 31.
Salaam told PUNCH that the union received an official invitation from the government on Wednesday.
The ICIR reported on Monday, October 28, that SSANU and NASU commenced an indefinite strike over unmet demands from the Federal Government.
The committee announced the strike in a statement on Sunday, October 27, jointly signed by the national president of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim, and the general secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi.
They noted that the ultimatum they gave the government over their members’ withheld salaries would expire Sunday midnight.
The unions are demanding, among others, the payment of their four-month withheld salaries, improved remuneration, earned allowances and implementation of the 2009 agreement with the government.
Meanwhile another union in the education sector, the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), on Wednesday, threatened to embark on a protest and strike in the next two weeks over withheld salaries.
It vowed to picket the Federal Ministry of Finance on November 14 and organise a nationwide protest on November 6 in response to the “unpleasant way” university employees were treated.
The president of the NAAT, Ibeji Nwokoma, told reporters at Labour House in Abuja on Wednesday that the planned protest and strike arose from the government’s failure to meet his group’s demands, including payment of five and a half months of withheld salaries and the full implementation of a 2009 agreement with NAAT.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance