No-Work-No-Pay: FG stops salary of Striking University Lecturers, others
In what appears to be the implementation of the ‘no work, no pay’ policy, the Federal Government has stopped payment to the striking university-based unions.
This comes as the unions lamented that despite all the notices and letters sent to the federal government over the ongoing strike in the public universities, the government has not deemed it fit to either acknowledge the letters or call them to round table discussions.
Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had embarked on a four-week warning strike on February 14 which was extended at its expiration, following the alleged failure of the government to address the contentious issues that led to the strike.
In March, the Joint Action Committee, JAC, comprising the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institution, NASU, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU declared a two-week warning strike, within the same month and it was also extended, while the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, declared its own two weeks warning strike the same month.
It was reliably gathered that the federal government has invoked the ‘no work, no pay’ policy against the striking unions.
Confirming this, the zonal coordinator of the ASUU, Abuja zone, Dr. Salahu Mohammed Lawal, said their members have been denied salaries.
“Our members were denied their salary. We are not surprised being a game plan to weaken and break our ranks,” he said.
On his part, the Chairman of ASUU, University of Calabar (UniCal) branch, Dr John Edor said “It is true that the government imposed the no work no pay policy on the striking workers,” even though he did not give the details of the payment crisis.
Also speaking, the President of NAAT, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, said members of his union were not paid full salaries in March.
He also said the government has ignored all the notices for the ongoing strike and had refused to acknowledge all the letters sent in that regard.
The NAAT President also told Vanguard that instead of inviting the striking university workers for a dialogue over the contentious issues, the government had gone ahead to implement the ‘no work, no salary ‘ policy.
He, however, said that seizing the salary of the union members would not make them call off the strike as the action was in the interest of the system.
Asked to give an update on the union’s strike, Comrade Nwokoma said: “As of today, we have entered the fifth week of our warning strike, the first two weeks and then we rolled over for four weeks. Unfortunately, as we are talking, the government has not acknowledged all the notices of the strike, all the letters we wrote to them as of today.
“Government has not also invited us or found it necessary to invite us to a round table discussion, so as to find a way forward. And unfortunately, too, the government has decided to stop our salaries, using the no work, no pay principle.”
