ASUU strike: FG activates ‘ no work, no pay’ policy.
– Steve Ovirih.
The industrial harmony in the Nigerian Ivory towers is far from being over.
A new twist has been introduced into the strike , running into its second month now, embarked on by members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as the Federal Government seems to have effected the ‘ no work , no pay’ policy.
Making this known through his Twitter page was the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige.
It will be recalled that the Joint Action Committee ( JAC) of Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ( SSANU) and its Non Academic Staff Union ( NASU) counterpart in all Nigerian Universities started a two week warning strike yesterday , Tuesday , the 29th March with a warning that if at the end of the two weeks their issues are not resolved they will call out their staff for an indefinite strike action just like their ASUU sister Union has done.
Dr. Chris Ngige said the era of playing Father Christmas to striking Union or unions is over as some people cannot resolve to stay at home while they will continue to collect money at the end of the month for backlog of work left undone.
He said henceforth any unit of the labour union or affiliated body that goes on strike without waiting to exhaust all the avenues of resolution of labour issues with government will not have their salary paid while they are on strike.
On the issues concerning the striking lecturers of Nigerian universities, Dr. Ngige said government was renegotiating their terms and demand with them with the hope of resolving their issues permanently when they shocked everybody by embarking on a strike action aimed at making government to look as unresponsive to their demands and challenges.
