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The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) has called on the federal government to pay their withheld three-and-a-half-month salaries, third-party deductions, and earned academic allowances.
Persecondnews recalls that CONUA, a splinter group from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), was formed during the administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari to break the ranks of members.
Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, CONUA’s National President, highlighted in a statement the pressing concern of promotion arrears, with some members waiting up to seven years for resolution and called for swift action to address this prolonged delay.
The Congress also frowned at the exclusion of its members from the committee that will renegotiate the 2009 agreement university workers entered into with the government.
The statement said: “The union wishes to once again call the attention of President Bola Tinubu to the continued withholding of the three and a half months salary due to the strike action embarked by a sister academic staff union in the universities.
“CONUA, as a union, has consistently maintained that it never declared and was not part of the strike action.
“What the government had done was to lump together those who embarked on strike with those who did not! This is unjust, and it is tantamount to punishing the innocent along with the guilty.
“The Federal Government’s action actually goes against the judgment delivered on 25 July 2023 at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), which affirmed CONUA as an independent union.
“The President should note that withholding the three and a half months salaries of members of CONUA who neither declared nor participated in any strike action also contravenes Section 43 (1b) of the Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8, which states that “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remuneration for the period of the lock-out, and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of period of employment.
“CONUA also noted that invitation was not extended to it when the renegotiation committee was constituted on Tuesday, 15th October 2024.
“The Union has submitted protest letters to the Honourable Minister of Education and the Chairman of the Renegotiation Committee, Alh. Yayale Mahmud Ahmed, while all relevant government agencies, such as the Senate President, the Speaker, the House of Representatives, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Chief of Staff, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Honourable Minister of Justice, etc., have been copied.
“CONUA is therefore
using this medium to demand its inclusion in the renegotiation committee without further delay, as failure to do this will amount to shaving the heads of its members in their absence.
“It was discovered that when the payment of the four months (March, April, May, and June 2022) salaries out of the seven and a half months of salaries withheld by the government as a result of the strike action embarked upon by ASUU was paid, through the Presidential prerogative, the third-party deductions for April, May, and June 2022 were not released, and they have not been released up till now.
“Information on its whereabouts and when it would be released has not been provided by the Federal Government.
“The union is demanding unequivocally that the agencies of government involved be directed to immediately release these third-party remittances without further delay. Very many academic staff have promotion arrears spanning a period of up to seven years, in some cases.
“The delay in promotion, in most cases, is not the fault of these concerned academics, and it will amount to double jeopardy if, having delayed their promotion, they are also made to suffer untold hardship with the delay in paying the promotion arrears.
“This discouraging state of affairs should be addressed expeditiously to enhance the diligence of the many academics affected by the counterproductive delay in the payment of promotion arrears.
“The Federal Government agreed to pay the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) for excess work done by academics in Federal Universities since the Universities are battling with shortage of manpower.
“This EAA payment was supposed to cover academic sessions from 2008/2009 (Rain Semester) onwards. The Federal Government has so far released four tranches of EAA in 2013, 2017, 2021, and 2022. These releases did not cover up to four sessions completely, not to mention the entire fourteen and a half (14½) sessions for which the payment is required.
“The Union is using this medium to demand the release of the EAA to cover these aforementioned periods and accelerate the optimal employment of more academics.”
The body recommended that instead of starting the minimum age for admission to higher institutions next year, all stakeholders involved in education should review the policy for their input before implementation, with the aim of strengthening the current 6-3-3-4 system.
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