THE Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Monday said that there was no justification in the discriminatory payment of the four months withheld salaries approved by President Bola Tinubu for the university workers.
Consequently, the NLC has urged the government to expeditiously pay up the outstandings, advising that the maturity of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, should not be taken for granted.
Recall that President Tinubu had in October last year directed that the four university based unions that were on prolonged strike in 2022 over the inability of the then government to address their concerns should be paid four months of the withheld salaries.
While members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have been paid, the three non teaching staff unions have not received anything which prompted the Joint Action Committee, JAC, of SSANU NASU, to declare seven days warning strike after several efforts made for the government to address the alleged injustice failed.
In solidarity with the protesting unions, the NLC in a statement in Abuja, said the singular act of government had plunged the members into indescribable hardship.
The statement signed by the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, with the title, “Arrest this drift now,” reads in part: “We join our affiliate unions, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational (NASU) and Associated Institutions and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) in demanding for the immediate payment of the withheld salaries of their members.
“There has been no credible reason or explanation for withholding those salaries in the first place. We recall this singular act plunged the members into indescribable hardship.
“Much worse, it defies logic to try to subject members of these unions to discriminatory treatment. By so doing government is clearly courting avoidable industrial dispute.
