The federal government of Nigeria on Wednesday revealed that progress has been made in the negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the ongoing strike by members of the union.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige who gave the update on Wednesday at the end of the meeting with ASUU said both parties have reached an agreement on some issues and ASUU is expected to present the government’s position to its members and revert before the week runs out.
He expressed optimism that the one-month strike embarked upon by ASUU will soon be called off.
Ngige gave the updates while speaking with newsmen at the end of the meeting between the union and the government delegation.
“We have only one or two areas that are new. One of the new areas is the renegotiation of the Conditions of Service, which is called the `2009 Agreement’.
“An agreement was reached in 2009 that their Conditions of Service would be reviewed every five years. It was done in 2014.
“We started one in which the former UNILAG Pro-Chancellor, Wale Babalakin (SAN), was chairing the committee.
“After Babalakin, Prof. Manzali was in charge and the committee came up with a draft document, proposed by the Federal Ministry of Education and ASUU.
“Today, Manzali’s committee has become defunct because many of the people in the committee are no longer pro-chancellors,” the minister explained.
Ngige said that a new team had been constituted to review the content of the document before a presentation is made to the Federal Executive Council and other relevant bodies for approval.
“This is to make sure that some of the allowances are not against the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) fixed rates for wages and allowances.
“If you propose allowances that do not comply with NSIWC rates, the government will not be able to accept it.
“So, it is important that they do the right thing from the beginning so that whatever the committee presents can be approved by the Federal Executive Council,’’ he said.
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